Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him! [Ger., Du bist noch nicht der Mann den Teufel festzuhalten.

All things are only transitory.

If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself.

Nothing is worse than active ignorance.

Many hammer all over the wall and believe that with each blow they hit the nail on the head.

Tolerance should really only be a passing attitude: it should lead to appreciation. To tolerate is to offend.

What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

Our foibles are really what make us lovable.

The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.

I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.

There is nothing more frightful than for a teacher to know only what his scholars are intended to know.

One never learns to understand truly anything but what one loves.

Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another.

If your treat an individual... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.

One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.

It is better to be doing the most insignificant thing than to reckon even a half-hour insignificant.

We can offer up much in the large, but to make sacrifices in little things is what we are seldom equal to.

One is led astray alike by sympathy and coldness, by praise and by blame

I do not speak of what I cannot praise.

The hardest thing is to see what's under your very eyes.

As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live.

Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.

What have the Germans gained by their boasted freedom of the press, except the liberty of abusing each other as they like?

Wishes are premonitions of abilities.

The spirit from which we act is the principal matter.

Faith is like private capital, stored in one's own house. It is like a public savings bank or loan office, from which individuals receive assistance in their days of need; but here the creditor quietly takes his interest for himself.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

I was oppressed with the sensations I then felt; I sunk under the weight of them.

The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.

Fortunately, we can take in only so much misfortune; what exceeds that limit either destroys us or leaves us indifferent.

Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.

Beware of wishing for anything in youth, because you will get it in middle age.

One spares old people just as one spares children.

We must be young to do great things.

Everything that we encounter leaves traces behind. Everything contributes imperceptibly to our education

Of all thieves, fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper.

That which is eternal in Woman lifts us above.

Continue to make the demands of the day your immediate concern, and take occasion to test the purity of your hearts and the steadfastness of your spirits. When you then take a deep breath and rise above the cares of this world and in an hour of leisure, you will surely win the proper frame of mind to face devoutly what is above us, with reverence, seeing in all events the manifestation of a higher guidance.

You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never Rises from the soul, and sways The heart of every single hearer, With deepest power, in simple ways. You’ll sit forever, gluing things together, Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps, Blowing on a miserable fire, Made from your heap of dying ash. Let apes and children praise your art, If their admiration’s to your taste, But you’ll never speak from heart to heart, Unless it rises up from your heart’s space.

One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.

Don't judge anyone harshly until you yourself have been through his experiences

One must be something, in order to do something.

The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.