Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

A noble man is led by woman's gentle words.

To act is easy; to think is hard.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.

Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

Unrest and uncertainty are our lot.

As our inclinations, so our opinions.

We should treat children as God does us, who makes us happiest when He leaves us under the influence of innocent delusions.

Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.

Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom, Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose!

Patriotism corrupts history.

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

When two people are really happy about one another one can generally assume they are mistaken.

Fools and wise men are equally harmless. It is the half-fools and half-wise that are dangerous.

Should I not be proud, when for twenty years I have had to admit to myself that the great Newton and all the mathematicians and noble calculators along with him were involved in a decisive error with respect to the doctrine of color, and that I among millions was the only one who knew what was right in this great subject of nature?

What sort of faults may we retain, nay, even cherish in ourselves? Those faults which are rather pleasant than offensive to others.

Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.

Religion is not in want of art; it rests on its own majesty.

If you call a thing bad you do little, if you call a thing good you do much

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

Love has the tendency of pressing together all the lights - all the rays emitted from the beloved object by the burning-glass of fantasy, - into one focus, and making of them one radiant sun without any spots.

Judge a man's character by what he finds ridiculous.

If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.

If the world does improve on the whole, yet youth must always begin anew, and go through the stages of culture from the beginning.

We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.

Were the eye not of the sun, How could we behold the light? If God's might and ours were not as one, How could His work enchant our sight?

Seize this very minute. What you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Begin it and the work will be completed

Well-mannered children could be conceived if the parents were well-mannered.

Beware of her fair hair, for she excels All women in the magic of her locks; And when she winds them round a young man's neck, She will not ever set him free again.

Not all that is presented to us as history has really happened; and what really happened did not actually happen the way it is presented to us; moreover, what really happened is only a small part of all that happened. Everything in history remains uncertain, the largest events as well as the smallest occurrence.

On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.

First let a man teach himself, and then he will be taught by others.

When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.

The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.

Animals, we have been told, are taught by their organs. Yes, I would add, and so are men, but men have this further advantage that they can also teach their organs in return.

I am a part of the part that at first was all, part of the darkness that gave birth to the light, that supercilious light which now disputes with Mother Night her ancient rank and space, and yet cannot succeed; no matter how it struggles, it sticks to matter and can't get free. Light flows from substance, makes it beautiful.

The experiences show us just as we are; they make us see our own defects.

I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and its activity will continue through eternity.

A world without love would be no world.

Give me those days with heart in riot, The depths of bliss that touched on pain, The force of hate, and love's disquiet- Ah, give me back my youth again!

Energy will do anything that can be done in this world.

He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.

To the man of thought almost nothing is really ridiculous.

The rich want good wine, the poor, plenty of wine

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

After fifteen minutes nobody looks at a rainbow.