Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

"A distracted existence leads us to no goal."

"What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won."

"There are nine requisites for contented living: HEALTH enough to make work a pleasure; WEALTH enough to support your needs; STRENGTH enough to battle with difficulties and forsake them; GRACE enough to confess your sins and overcome them; PATIENCE enough to toil until some good is accomplished; CHARITY enough to see some good in your neighbor; LOVE enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others; FAITH enough to make real the things of God; HOPE enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future."

"It is in human nature to relax, when not compelled by personal advantage or disadvantage."

"The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt."

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

"This is the true measure 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 ever love in the same way after us"

"If I love you, what business is it of yours?"

"Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds."

"The happy do not believe in miracles"

"There is nothing more frightful than imagination without taste."

"Individuality seems to be Nature's whole aim -- and she cares nothing for individuals."

"has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in the epoch-making program."

"The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence."

"When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be."

"When you praise someone you call yourself his equal"

"If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question."

"The people rate strength before everything."

"A clever man commits no minor blunders."

"In art the best is good enough."