Quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.

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

The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.

What is the freedom of the most free? To do what is right!

Mastery is proven only in limitation, and law alone can give us freedom.

What have the Germans gained by their boasted freedom of the press, except the liberty of abusing each other as they like?

Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely.

A joy shared is a joy doubled.

So, lively brisk old fellow, don't let age get you down. White hairs or not, you can still be a lover.

He who does not see the whole world in his friends, does not deserve that the world should hear of him.

I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.

It is in self-imitation that a master first shows himself.

We can really respect a man only if he doesn't always look out for himself

Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality

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

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]

Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal... It is the most perpetual people of the earth.

Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.

Age merely shows what children we remain.

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

The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.