Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes. It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these pages of the book of life.

He is a man whom it is impossible to please, because he is never pleased with himself.

As beauteous is the world, and many a joy Floats through its wide dominion. But, alas, When we would seize the winged good, it flies.

We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.

Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do.

Presents at once? That's good. He is sure to succeed.

Light has called forth one organ to become its like, and thus the eye is formed by the light and for the light so that the inner light may emerge to meet the outer light.

The worst is that the very hardest thinking will not bring thoughts. They must come like good children of God and cry, "Here we are." You expend effort and energy thinking hard. Then, after you have given up, they come sauntering in with their hands in their pockets. If the effort had not been made to open the door, however, who knows when they could have come.

One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand.

Whenever I hear people talking about liberal ideas, I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive.

Come my little one, and give me your hand.

It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

For that is love's nature that it lays claim to exclusive right and that all other claims are nil.

Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of art.

I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.

It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. But I am sure that figures show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.

With knowledge comes more doubt.

The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.

All professional men are handicapped by not being allowed to ignore things which are useless.

The miller imagines that the corn grows only to make his mill turn.

Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

In the end we are all separate: our stories, no matter how similar, come to a fork and diverge. We are drawn to each other because of our similarities, but it is our differences we must learn to respect.

Originality provokes originality.

He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn't every nationhave its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?

Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

Poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere, and at all times, in hundreds and hundreds of men.

A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.

The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

There is but one poetry,--true poetry.

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

There speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.

Everything transitory is but an image.

Man knows himself only insofar as he knows the world, becoming aware of it if only within himself, and of himself self only within it. Each new subject, well observed, opens up within us a new organ of thought.

Once I blazed across the sky, Leaving trails of flame; I fell to earth, and here I lie - Who'll help me up again? -A Shooting Star

To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.

He loves not who does not see the faults of the beloved as virtues.

The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.

Sweet moonlight, shining full and clear, Why do you light my torture here? How often have you seen me toil, Burning last drops of midnight oil. On books and papers as I read, My friend, your mournful light you shed. If only I could flee this den And walk the mountain-tops again, Through moonlit meadows make my way, In mountain caves with spirits play - Released from learning's musty cell, Your healing dew would make me well!

We can stand only a certain amount of unhappiness; anything beyond that annihilates us or passes us by, leaving us apathethetic.