A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everything in the world may be endured except continued prosperity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nothing is worth more than this day.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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
Science arose from poetry--when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Whatever you can do or dream, begin it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
