Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes About Learning

• Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Motivational, Friendship

  "My Country", Volume 2, No. 3, published by Litchfield Historical Society, p. 23, September 1968.

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Travel, Communication, Inspiration

• Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

• By seeking and blundering we learn.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Education, Mistake, Learning

• I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Believe, Book, Learning

• All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Wisdom, Time

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Stuart Blackie (1883). “The Wisdom of Goethe”, Edinburgh, W. Blackwood

• Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Learning, Understanding

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.160, Ravenio Books

• No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Literature, Knows

• He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspiration, Learning, Knowing

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2012). “The Goethe Treasury: Selected Prose and Poetry”, p.293, Courier Corporation

• The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Experience, Practicals

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

• The art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Life Lesson, Learning

• A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows and rows of natural objects, classified with name and form.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wisdom, Teacher, Memories

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “Elective Affinities”, p.175, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune's always here.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Fortune, Good Fortune

• No one as ever completed their apprenticeship.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Experience, Apprenticeship

• What we do not understand we do not possess.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Education, Wisdom, Learning

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2012). “The Goethe Treasury: Selected Prose and Poetry”, p.294, Courier Corporation

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Inspirational, Life

• The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Thoughtful, Growth

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

• Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet it is the same with this art as with all others: only the capacity for it is innate; the art itself must be learned and painstakingly practiced.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Happiness, Art, Learning

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

• In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Education, Learning, Study

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.78, Ravenio Books

• A man doesn't learn to understand anything unless he loves it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Men, Understanding

• A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Men, Trying

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3588, Delphi Classics

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