Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

“Time itself is an element.”

“Nature goes her own way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.”

“To a valet no man is a hero.”

“Painting predicates what man wants to see, and what man ought to see, not what he ordinarily sees.”

“Fools and wise men are equally harmless. It is the half-fools and half-wise that are dangerous.”

“We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.”

“A world without love would be no world.”

“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”

“When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.”

“The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources”

“A man is really alive only when he delights in the good-will of others.”

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

“The coward only threatens when he is safe.”

“Generally 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.”

“You are, when all is done-just what you are.”

“If we meet someone who owes us a debt of gratitude, we remember the fact at once. How often we can meet someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude without thinking about it at all!”

“The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.”

“The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging.”

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

“Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism.”

“The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five.”

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.”

“They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!”

“The summit charms us, the steps to it do not; with the heights before our eyes, we like to linger in the plain. It is only a part of art that can be taught; but the artist needs the whole. He who is only half instructed speaks much and is always wrong; who knows it wholly is content with acting and speaks seldom or late.”

“Who are you then?" "I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.”