“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.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how 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 to be and could be.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“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.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part
“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“If I love you, what business is it of yours?”
― Johann wolfgang von Goethe
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“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.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“If you’ve never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“I bid the chords sweet music make,
And all must follow in my wake.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Know thyself? If I knew myself, I’d run away.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Niemand ist mehr Sklave, als der sich für frei hält, ohne es zu sein.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.”
― Goethe
“A person hears only what they understand.”
― Johann wolfgang von Goethe
“By seeking and blundering we learn.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
― Johann wolfgang von Goethe
“Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and — if at all possible — speak a few sensible words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.”
(Letter to A.F. Oeser, Nov. 9, 1768)”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“I love those who yearn for the impossible.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”
― Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“Nothing is worth more than this day.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Everything is hard before it is easy”
― Goethe J.W.
“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”
― Johann wolfgang von Goethe
“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“I am proud of my heart alone, it is the sole source of everything, all our strength, happiness and misery. All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Who are you then?”
“I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never
Rises from the soul, and sways
The heart of every single hearer,
With deepest power, in simple ways.
You’ll sit forever, gluing things together,
Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps,
Blowing on a miserable fire,
Made from your heap of dying ash.
Let apes and children praise your art,
If their admiration’s to your taste,
But you’ll never speak from heart to heart,
Unless it rises up from your heart’s space.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“No one is willing to believe that adults too, like children, wander about this earth in a daze and, like children, do not know where they come from or where they are going, act as rarely as they do according to genuine motives, and are as thoroughly governed as they are by biscuits and cake and the rod.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.”
― Goethe
“We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“There is strong shadow where there is much light.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goeth