Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 9

• Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Respect, Attitude, Literature

  60 Copy quote

• Gray are all the theories, But green is the tree of life.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Tree, Green, Theory

  8 Copy quote

• Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Life, Girl

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Oxenford (2013). “The Auto-Biography of Goethe: Truth and Poetry: From My Own Life”, p.6, Cambridge University Press

  23 Copy quote

• To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Easy, Threshold

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (1824). “Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels”, p.75

  10 Copy quote

• It is not given to us to grasp the truth, which is identical with the divine, directly. We perceive it only in reflection, in example and symbol, in singular and related appearances. It meets us as a kind of life which is incomprehensible to us, and yet we cannot free ourselves from the desire to comprehend it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Reflection, Desire, Example

  4 Copy quote

• The highest cannot be spoken; it can only be acted.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Action, Highest

  4 Copy quote

• Every second is of infinite value.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Time, Helping, Infinite

  12 Copy quote

• Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Leadership, Hope, Motivation

  61 Copy quote

• Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Taken, Sky, Tree

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Parke Godwin (1872). “The Auto-biography of Goethe: Truth and Poetry, from My Own Life”, p.388

  12 Copy quote

• The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Character, Chiefs, Aim

  13 Copy quote

• Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Witty, Clever

  122 Copy quote

• Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Motivational, Beautiful, Looks

  6 Copy quote

• The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspiration, Hero, Virtue

  12 Copy quote

• Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Motivational, Mind, Tasks

  8 Copy quote

• Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Happiness, Instruction

  8 Copy quote

• This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Softball, Wisdom

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Walter Arnold Kaufmann (1961). “Faust: part one and sections from part two”

  46 Copy quote

• There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Baby, Children, Wings

  43 Copy quote

• A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Respect, Men, Thinking

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (18??). “The Works of J. W. Von Goethe”

  14 Copy quote

• Live dangerously and you live right.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Success, Insightful

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre (1957). “Goethe's Faust, Part 1: New American Version”, p.125, New Directions Publishing

  20 Copy quote

• Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Moving, Taken

  8 Copy quote

• I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mephistopheles, Omniscient, Knows

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, David Luke (1998). “Faust”, p.49, Oxford University Press, USA

  60 Copy quote

• A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Faults, Lovable

  39 Copy quote

• What one doesn't understand one doesn't possess.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Understanding

  15 Copy quote

• I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, People, Trying

  7 Copy quote

• Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Communication, Views, Achievement

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

  19 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Friedrich Schiller

Heinrich Heine

Friedrich Nietzsche

Lord Byron

William Shakespeare

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Johann Gottfried Herder

Immanuel Kant