Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

It is a mistake for a taciturn, serious-minded woman to marry a jovial man, but not for a serious-minded man to marry a lighthearted woman.

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

if only these treasures were not so fragile as they are precious and beautiful.

The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world.

The greatest step forward would be to see that everything factual is already theory. The blueness of the sky reveals the basic lawof chromatics. Don't look for anything behind the phenomena, they themselves are the doctrine.

I hate every violent overthrow, because as much is destroyed as is gained by it.

Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences progress in even greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires: beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

Then to the depths! - I could as well say height: It's all the same.

Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.

I can promise to be sincere, but I cannot promise to be impartial.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

What we don't understand we don't possess.

It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself." ~ Goethe

What matters in art is not thinking but making.

Who is the happiest man? He who is alive to the merit of others, and can rejoice in their enjoyment as if it were his own.

All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.

Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.

An actor should take lessons from a painter and a sculptor.

As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.

I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live.

Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization.

No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.

I hate all bungling as I do sin, but particularly bungling in politics, which leads to the misery and ruin of many thousands and millions of people.

Dispel not, the happy delusions of children.

Necessity is cruel, but it is the only test of inward strength. Every fool may live according to his own likings.

The happiest man is the one who finds happiness at home.

He who is resolute conquers grief.

To a valet no man is a hero.

There is strong shadow where there is much light.

Enjoy what you can, endure what you must.

No skill or art is needed to grow old; the trick is to endure it.

The most fortunate of men, Be he a king or commoner, is he Whose welfare is assured in his own home.

Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.

In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be; but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant.

If youth is a fault, it is one that one gets rid of soon enough.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

Most man only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.

To be active is the primary vocation of man.

If everyone sweeps before his own front door, then the street is clean.

As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.

I make presents to the mother but think of the daughter.

A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.

What a torment it is to see so much loveliness passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold of it!

Whoso is content with pure experience and acts upon it has enough of truth.

Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.