Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes About Giving

• There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Children, Wings, Two

• Human life runs its course in the metamorphosis between receiving and giving.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Running, Giving, Receiving

• Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Generosity, Giving, Absence

• There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Family, Inspiring, Children

• Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Heart, Sensitive Person, Giving

• Whatever liberates our spirit, without also giving us mastery over ourselves, is destructive.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Freedom, Giving, Mastery

• Only law can give us freedom.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Freedom, Law, Giving

• No two people see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will often apply the same principle, recognized by both, differently. Even one and the same person won't always maintain the same views and judgments: earlier convictions must give way to later ones.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Two, Views, Giving

• We can't form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Baby, Children

  Hermann and Dorothea pt. 3 (1797)

• The realization of the self is only possible if one is productive, if one can give birth to one's own potentialities.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Self, Giving, Accountability

• Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Giving, Doubt, Benefits

• Come my little one, and give me your hand.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hands, Giving, Dying

• No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge. The same man will, indeed, often see and judge the same things differently on different occasions: early convictions must give way to more mature ones. Nevertheless, may not the opinions that a man holds and expresses withstand all trials, if he only remains true to himself and others?

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Two, Giving

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Gage (1980). “Goethe on Art”, p.5, Univ of California Press

• Nature reacts not only to physical disease, but also to moral weakness; when the danger increases; she gives us greater courage

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Nature, Giving, Weakness

• Who longs in solitude to live, Ah! soon his wish will gain: Men hope and love, men get and give, and leave him to his pain.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Hope, Pain

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.233, Delphi Classics

• Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Happiness, Giving, Spirit

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3516, Delphi Classics

• People do not mind their faults being spread out before them, but they become impatient if called on to give them up.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Giving, Mind

• This being busied with thoughts of immortality is for the noble classes and especially for women with nothing to do. A solid person, though, someone who already intends to be something worthy here, and who therefore has to strive daily, has to struggle and work, gives the world to come a rest.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Struggle, Class, Giving

• Don't say that you want to give, but go ahead and give! You'll never catch up with a mere hope.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Generosity, Giving, Want

• It is quite beyond me how anyone can believe God speaks to us in books and stories. If the world does not directly reveal to us our relationship to it, if our hearts fail to tell us what we owe ourselves and others, we shall assuredly not learn it from books, which are at best designed but to give names to our errors.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Book, Believe, Heart

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

• Some people spend the day in complaining of a headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Drinking, Wine, Night

• Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Dream, Destiny, Order

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “Elective Affinities”, p.186, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• My counsel is, to force nothing, and rather to trifle and sleep away all unproductive days and hours, than on such days to compose something that will afterwards give no pleasure.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, Sleep, Giving

• [W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Expression, Giving, Excellence

• ‎It has ever been my fate to give pain to those whose happiness I should have promoted.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Pain, Fate, Should Have

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, p.92, Booklassic

You May Also Like:

Friedrich Schiller

Heinrich Heine

Friedrich Nietzsche

Lord Byron

William Shakespeare

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Johann Gottfried Herder