Quotes By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

I call architecture frozen music.

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

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.

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

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

We can't form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.

Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.

The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.

Nothing is more fearful than imagination without taste.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.