Monday, February 6, 2012

JOHANN WOLFGANG von GOETHE - QUOTES








What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.


We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.




There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws.






It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.




Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.






We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.






Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.




The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.



Life is the childhood of our immortality.


That is the true season of love; when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved as much before, and that no one will ever love in the same way again.





When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face.


As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.







Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image


Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.






Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.


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







He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.


All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.






Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.


Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.






He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.


Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.






The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.


Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.






No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.


Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.





The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.


Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.