Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWhoever makes it a rule to test action by thought, thought by action, cannot falter, and if he does, will soon find his way back to the right road.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheTolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheHow many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWe rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our ignorance.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAnd those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMoney lost, something lost. Honor lost, much lost. Courage lost, everything lost-better you were never born
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe web of this world is woven of Necessity and Chance. Woe to him who has accustomed himself from his youth up to find something necessary in what is capricious, and who would ascribe something like reason to Chance and make a religion of surrendering to it.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWhat is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe greatest joy of a thinking man is to have searched the explored and to quietly revere the unexplored.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheDivide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheConfronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheGenerally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheNo one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
Johann Wolfgang von GoethePain and pleasure, good and evil, come to us from unexpected sources. It is not there where we have gathered up our brightest hopes, that the dawn of happiness breaks. It is not there where we have glanced our eye with affright, that we find the deadliest gloom. What should this teach us? To bow to the great and only Source of light, and live humbly and with confiding resignation.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe theater has often been at variance with the pulpit; they ought not to quarrel. How much is it to be wished that in both the celebration of nature and of God were intrusted to none but men of noble minds.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMen are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. ...For this reason, one ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWithout my attempts in natural science, I should never have learned to know mankind such as it is. In nothing else can we so closely approach pure contemplation and thought, so closely observe the errors of the senses and of the understanding, the weak and strong points of character.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMan believes himself always greater than he is, and is esteemed less than he is worth.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAre we not also married to conscience which we would love to get rid of often enough since it is more bothersome than a man or a woman ever could become?
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWhoever strikes at marriage either by word or act undermines the foundation of all moral society.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe few of understanding, vision rare, Who veiled not from the herd their hearts, but tried, Poor generous fools, to lay their feelings bare, Them have men always burnt and crucified.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheI could never have known so well how paltry men are, and how little they care for really high aims, if I had not tested them by my scientific researches. Thus I saw that most men 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.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheIt doesn't behoove elderly persons to follow fashion in their thinking nor in the way they dress.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe