Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

“A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.”

“Don't judge anyone harshly until you yourself have been through his experiences”

“Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hope of new pleasure, is it worthwhile to dress and undress?”

“They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.”

“Our hands we open of our own free will, and the good flies, which we can never recall.”

“What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.”

“Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.”

“To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence - - this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.”

“I wait for the morning of my tears”

“A useless life is an early death.[Ger., Ein unnutz Leben ist ein fruher Tod.]”

“When I say to the Moment flying; 'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!' Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!”

“He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.”

“And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night.[Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die SterneRings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]”

“As all Nature's thousands changes But one changeless God proclaim; So in Art's wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene through time and season Stands aye in loveliness.”

“I am a part of the part that at first was all, part of the darkness that gave birth to the light, that supercilious light which now disputes with Mother Night her ancient rank and space, and yet cannot succeed; no matter how it struggles, it sticks to matter and can't get free. Light flows from substance, makes it beautiful.”

“A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.”

“Can a sparrow know how a stork feels?”

“A man is not little when he finds it difficult to cope with circumstances, but when circumstances overmaster him.”

“Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do.”

“Art is long, life is short; judgement difficult, opportunity transient.”

“The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.”

“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.”

“He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.”

“If man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill.”

“Everything factual is, in a sense, theory. The blue of the sky exhibits the basic laws of chromatics. There is no sense in looking for something behind phenomena: they are theory.”