Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Nothing is more consonant with Nature than that she puts into operation in the smallest detail that which she intends as a whole.

Every form correctly seen is beautiful

In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.

The artist may be well advised to keep his work to himself till it is completed, because no one can readily help him or advise him with it... but the scientist is wiser not to withhold a single finding or a single conjecture from publicity.

Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life.

True love is love that stays constant for ever, whatever it's fortune; whether requited or scored, filled or sent empty away.

Zweck sein selbst ist jegliches Tier.Each animal is an end in itself.

A man avails himself of the truth so long as it is serviceable; but he seizes on what is false with a passionate eloquence as soon as he can make a momentary use of it.

Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.

One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.

We are our own aptest deceiver.

Forget not that the man who cannot enjoy his own natural gifts in silence, and find his reward in the exercise of them, will generally find himself badly off.

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves.

To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.

Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease.[Ger., Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.]

I am part of the part that once was everything, Part of the darkness which gave birth to light… Mephistopheles, from Faust.

One can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days

Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.

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

Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.

Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions; one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.

Alas! sorrow from happiness is oft evolved.

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

Every individual who is not creative has a negative, narrow, exclusive taste and succeeds in depriving creative being of its energy and life.

In politics as on a sickbed men toss from side to side in hope of lying more comfortably.

He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it.

Lay hold of life with both hands, whenever thou mayest seize it, it is interesting.

The flowers of life are but illusions. How many fade away and leave no trace.

Of the truly creative no one is ever master; it must be left to go its own way.

Great passions are incurable diseases.

Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.

Who enslaves another's manhood with weak human power alone, Lays a heavier yoke of bondage thoughtlessly upon his own.

Everything in the world may be endured except continual prosperity.

One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem, and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.

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.

The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.

It is the great triumph of genius to make the common appear novel.

Whatever we think out, whatever we take in hand to do, should be perfectly and finally finished, that the world, if it must alter, will only have to spoil it; we have then nothing to do but unite the severed, to recollect and restore the dismembered.

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

Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.

Waste not a day in vain digression; with resolute, courageous trust seek every possible impression and make it firmly your posession you'll then work on because you must.

Experiments are mediators between nature and idea.

There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.

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.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

It would be a lowly art that allowed itself to be understood all at once.

There is no better deliverance from the world than through art, and a man can form no surer bond with it.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

With the growth of knowledge our ideas must from time to time be organized afresh. The change takes place usually in accordance with new maxims as they arise, but it always remains provisional.

The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.

To venture an opinion is like moving a piece at chess: it may be taken, but it forms the beginning of a game that is won.

I will be lord over myself.

A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.

The mind is found most acute and most uneasy in the morning. Uneasiness is, indeed, a species of sagacity - a passive sagacity. Fools are never uneasy.

To make an epoch in the world, two conditions are manifestly essential-a good head and a great inheritance.