Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes

“If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Every step of life shows much caution is required.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.”

— 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.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“To rule is easy, to govern difficult.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The right man is the one who seizes the moment.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe