Painted portrait, 1828Joseph Karl Stieler · Public domain

207 collected words

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life dates: 1749 AD — 1832 AD

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1766 AD

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 / quote

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02c. 1766 AD

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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03c. 1766 AD

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 / quote

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04c. 1766 AD

He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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05c. 1766 AD

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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06c. 1766 AD

I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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07c. 1766 AD

Anything in the world can be endured, except a series of wonderful days.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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08c. 1766 AD

Instruction does much, but encouragement everyt

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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09c. 1766 AD

Everything is hard before it is easy

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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10c. 1766 AD

If the whole world I once could seeOn free soil stand, with the people freeThen to the moment might I say,Linger awhile. . .so fair thou art.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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11c. 1766 AD

Insofar as he makes use of his healthy senses, man himself is the best and most exact scientific instrument possible. The greatest misfortune of modern physics is that its experiments have been set apart from man, as it were, physics refuses to recognize nature in anything not shown by artificial instruments, and even uses this as a measure of its accomplishments.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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12c. 1766 AD

Let this little book be thy friend, if, owing to fortune or through thine own fault, thou canst not find a dearer companion.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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13c. 1766 AD

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 / quote

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14c. 1766 AD

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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15c. 1766 AD

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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16c. 1766 AD

The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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17c. 1766 AD

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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18c. 1766 AD

Nothing can be compared to the new life that the discovery of another country provides for a thoughtful person. Although I am still the same I believe to have changed to the bones.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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19c. 1766 AD

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 / quote

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20c. 1766 AD

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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21c. 1766 AD

Colors are light's suffering and joy

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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22c. 1766 AD

The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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23c. 1766 AD

You must, in studying Nature, always consider both each single thing and the whole: nothing is inside and nothing is outside, for what is within is without. Make haste, then, to grasp this holy mystery which is public knowledge.Rejoice in the true illusion, in the serious game: no living thing is a unity, it is always manifold.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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24c. 1766 AD

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / quote

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