Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

A resolution that is communicated is no longer within thy power; thy attentions become now the plaything of chance; he who would have his commands certainly carried out must take man by surprise.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.

Someday someone will write a pathology of experimental physics and bring to light all those swindles which subvert our reason, beguile our judgement and, what is worse, stand in the way of any practical progress. The phenomena must be freed once and for all from their grim torture chamber of empiricism, mechanism, and dogmatism; they must be brought before the jury of man's common sense.

Ambition and love are the wings of great actions.

A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Thou must (in commanding and winning, or serving and losing, suffering or triumphing) be either anvil or hammer.

I love those who yearn for the impossible.

Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.

If you want to make life easy, make it hard.

If you want to get pleasure out of life, you must attach value to the world.

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves; and I have so much trouble with myself, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.

Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.

All one needs to do is declare oneself free and one will immediately feel dependent. If you dare to declare yourself dependent, you feel independent.

The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing.

The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.

Hypotheses are the scaffolds which are erected in front of a building and removedd when the building is completed. They are indispensable to the worker; but the worker must not mistake the scaffolding for the building.

Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man's nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.

The eternal feminine draws us on high.

The bad thing is that thinking about thought doesn't help at all; one has to have it from nature so that the good ideas appear before us like free children of God calling to us: Here we are.

Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre.

When two men quarrel, who owns the cooler head is the more to blame.

Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.

Profoundness, genius, spontaneity, merit, nobility, ingenuity, voice propriety, feeling, discernment, sensibility, good taste, great tone, rightness, courtliness, vivacity, boldness, style, freshness, harmony, perfection, imagination, purity, correctness. The greatest writer of all times. God's most astonishing creation.

Few rash of any modern nation have a proper sense of an aesthetical whole; they praise and blame by parts; they are charmed by passages. And who has greater reason to rejoice in this than actors, since the stage is ever but a patched and piecemeal matter?

The safest thing is always to try to convert everything that is in us and around us into action; let the others talk and argue about it as they please.

You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.

Precaution is better than cure.

It is one of Heaven's best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one's arms.

If it is the greatest truth that you seek, the plants can direct you.

A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.

One needs only to get old to become milder; I don't see anyone make a mistake I hadn't also made.

The Bible grows more beautiful, as we grow in our understanding of it.

To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome.

I hate all explanations; they who make them deceive either themselves or the other party,-generally both.

It seems to me that every phenomenon, every fact, itself is the really interesting object. Whoever explains it, or connects it with other events, usually only amuses himself or makes sport of us, as, for instance, the naturalist or historian. But a single action or event is interesting, not because it is explainable, but because it is true.

Over all the mountain tops is peace.

Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.

If there is confusion in your head and in your heart, what more do you want! A man who no longer loves and no longer errs should have himself buried straight away.

Gifts come from above in their own peculiar forms.

Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.

Lose the day loitering, 'twill be the same story To-morrow, and the next more dilatory, For indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! What you can do, or think you can, begin it! Only engage, and then the mind grows heated; Begin it, and the work will be completed.

I had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it

We always hope, and in all things it is better to hope than to despair.

Hypotheses are only the pieces of scaffolding which are erected round a building during the course of construction, and which are taken away as soon as the edifice is completed.

To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign.

Even the lowliest, provided he is whole, can be happy, and in his own . way, perfect.