There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotations
We found 138 matching quotations.
A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.
The ground that a good man treads is hallowed.
The man of understanding finds everything laughable.
The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.
Death is Nature's expert advice to get plenty of Life.
More light! Give me more light!
The beginning of faith is the beginning of fruitfulness but the beginning of unbelief, however glittering, is empty.
The society of women is the element of good manners.
Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
A man's errors are what make him amiable.
He who seizes the right moment is the right man.
Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.
Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.
Everything a human being wants can be divided into four components love, adventure, power and fame.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought and could be.
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.
Nothing is as terrible to see as ignorance in action.
Everybody wants to be somebody nobody wants to grow.
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
What government is the best That which teaches us to govern ourselves.
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words.
Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.
I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.
One man's word is no man's word we should quietly hear both sides.
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
Everything in the world may be endured, except continual prosperity.
When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.
We are never deceived we deceive ourselves.
Difficulties increase the nearer we approach our goal.
There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.
If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.
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.
He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
I love those who yearn for the impossible.
To live as one likes is plebian the noble man aspires to order and law.
Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay.
Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Art is long, life short judgment difficult, opportunity transient.
Oh God, how do the world and heavens confine themselves, when our hearts tremble in their own barriers!
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.
To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.
So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.
Rest not Life is sweeping by go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.
Life is the childhood of our immortality.
Plunge boldly into the thick of life
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.
He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves otherwise we harden.
The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.
That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way after us.
All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life.
Life is not anything, but an opportunity for something.
It is not enough to have knowledge, one must also apply it. It is not enough to have wishes, one must also accomplish.
No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstood others.
When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.
There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.
I call architecture frozen music.
Live dangerously and you live right.
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
Knowing is not enough we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do.
Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation.
I find the great thing in this world is, not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
A man who does not know foreign language is ignorant of his own.
We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases.
Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
My poor head is in such a whirl, my mind is all in bits.
The man who acts never has any conscience no one has any conscience but the man who thinks.
Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.
Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.
All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
Our friends show us what we can do our enemies teach us what we must do.
If your treat an individual ... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
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. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
What is not fully understood is not possessed.
Everything in the world may be endured except continued prosperity.
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
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.
I do not know everything; still many things I understand.
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly achieve in an age.
There is a courtesy of the heart it is allied to love. From it springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.
A clever man commits no minor blunders.
Noble be man,
Helpful and good!
For that alone
Sets him apart
From every other creature
On earth.
Helpful and good!
For that alone
Sets him apart
From every other creature
On earth.
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
I love the deep quiet in which I live and grow against the world and harvest what they cannot take from me by fire or sword.
Age does not make us childish, as some say it only finds us true children still.
Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.
You will always find [hatred] strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.
One never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going.
First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.
The highest happiness of man ... is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.
We know accurately only when we know little with knowledge doubt increases.
Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny.
When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.
If I love you, what business is it of yours
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Talents are best nurtured in solitude character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe believe life it teaches better than book or orator.
Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune is always here.
I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.
I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.
The unnatural, that too is natural.