Quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

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

Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done.

The Church has an excellent appetite. She has swallowed whole countries and the question Has never risen of indigestion. Only the Church . . . can take Ill-gotten goods without stomach-ache!

For many people, one of the most frustrating aspects of life is not being able to understand other people's behavior.

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound.

The best is the deep quiet in which I live and grow against the world, and harvest what they cannot take from me by fire or sword.

Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.

Say what you will of fortitude, but show me the man who can patiently endure the laughter of fools when they have obtained an advantage over him. 'Tis only when their nonsense is without foundation that one can suffer it without complaint.

I can promise to be sincere, but I cannot promise to be impartial.

What matters creative endless toil, When, at a snatch, oblivion ends the coil?

If I love you, is that any of your business?

How to please the public - that's the test, But nowadays I find I'm in a fix; I know they're not accustomed to the best, But they've all read so much they know the tricks. How can we give then something fresh and new That's serious, but entertaining too?

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

God knows I often retire to my bed wishing (at times even hoping) that I might never wake up; and in the morning I open my eyes, see the sun once again, and am miserable.

I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and its activity will continue through eternity.

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

If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature.

Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. - Without haste, but without rest.

My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect; and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.

Yes - this I hold to with devout insistence, Wisdom's last verdict goes to say: He only earns both freedom and existence Who must reconquer them each day.

Was glänzt ist für den Augenblick geboren; Das Echte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren.

The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.

Poetry, dreams, desire, everything leads me to you.