Our work is the presentation of our capabilities. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ability)

People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ability)

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ability)

The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ability)

The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Absence)

He who is plenteously provided for from within, needs but little from without. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Abundance)

Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Achievement)

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Achievement)

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

Before you can do something you must first be something. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know what is in thee. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

The deed is everything, the glory is naught. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

Then indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute; What you can do, or dream you can, begin it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

When all is said the greatest action is to limit and isolate one's self. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Action)

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Adversity)

Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Age and Aging)

We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Age and Aging)

The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Age and Aging)

Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Age and Aging)

It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Age and Aging)

One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Agreement)

All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Aristocracy)

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Arts and Artists)

The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Arts and Artists)

Personality is everything in art and poetry. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Arts and Artists)

One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is when we see its separate forms jumbled together. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Arts and Artists)

Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Arts and Artists)

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Beauty)

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. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Beauty)

Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Beauty)

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Behavior)

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Belief)

Oh how sweet it is to hear one's own convictions from another's lips. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Belief)

We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Belief)

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Belief)

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Challenges)

The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Challenges)

Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Change)

What I possess I would gladly retain. Change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Change)

Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Change)

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Change)

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Character)

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Character)

Character develops itself in the stream of life. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Character)

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Character)

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Character)

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Character)

We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Children)

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Children)

The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Christians and Christianity)

Master and Doctor are my titles; for ten years now, without repose, I held my erudite recitals and led my pupils by the nose. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Colleges and Universities)

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Commitment)

Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Common Sense)

Common sense is the genius of humanity. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Common Sense)

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Communication)

No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Competition)

I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Complaints and Complaining)

You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Consistency)

Where there is much light, the shadow is deep. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Contrast)

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Cooperation)

Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Courage)

Wealth lost is something lost, honor lost is something lost: Courage lost all is lost. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Courage)

Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Courage)

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Courtesy)

The coward threatens when he is safe. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Coward and Cowardice)

A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Creativity)

To create something you must be something. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Creativity)

There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Crime and Criminals)

The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Critics and Criticism)

Strike the dog dead, it's but a critic! - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Critics and Criticism)

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Culture)

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Death and Dying)

A useless life is an early death. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Death and Dying)

Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Deception)

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Deception)

The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Decisions)

Ambition and love are the wings to great deeds. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Deeds and Good Deeds)

Deny yourself! You must deny yourself! That is the song that never ends. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Denial)

While man's desires and aspirations stir he cannot choose but err. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Desire)

The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Destiny)

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Destiny)

I know nothing more mocking than a devil that despairs. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Devil)

It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Direction)

Doubt can only be removed by action. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Doubt)

I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Doubt)

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Doubt)

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Dreams)

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Duty)

Love can do much, but duty more. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Duty)

People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Eccentricity)

They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Education)

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Egotism)

Mastery passes often for egotism. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Egotism)

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Emotions)

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Encouragement)

No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Enemies)

He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Enjoyment)

Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Enjoyment)

Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Envy)

Every situation, every moment -- is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Eternity)

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Excellence)

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Fame)

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Fame)

If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Fame)

More light! - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Famous Last Words)

Sowing is not as difficult as reaping. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Farming and Farmers)

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Faults)

It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Fear)

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Feelings)

Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Flattery)

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Flaws)

Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Focus)

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Fools and Foolishness)

If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. They will make note of this and not remain in your debt long. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Forgiveness)

Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune's always here. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Fortune)

Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Freedom)

Only law can give us freedom. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Freedom)

Yes! To this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Freedom)

In comradeship is danger countered best. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Friends and Friendship)

Giving is the business of the rich. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Generosity)

The first and last thing required of genius is, love of the truth. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Genius)

The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Genius)

A distracted existence leads us to no goal. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Goals)

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Goals)

Their is nothing so terrible as activity without insight. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Goals)

One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Goals)

Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Goals)

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Government)

Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Growth)

The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Habit)

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Happiness)

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Happiness)

What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Happiness)

The highest happiness of man is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Happiness)

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Happiness)

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Happiness)

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Hatred)

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Hatred)

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. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Health)

Those are dead even for this life who hope for no other. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Heaven)

It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Heroes and Heroism)

The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Heroes and Heroism)

The history of mankind is his character. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - History and Historians)

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Home)

Be he a king or a peasant, he is happiest who finds peace at home. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Home)

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is? - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Honesty)

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Hope)

In all things it is better to hope than to despair. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Hope)

Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Humankind)

One that does not think to highly of himself is more than he thinks. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Humility)

Whenever I hear people talking about liberal ideas, I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ideas)

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ideas)

Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Ignorance)

There is nothing more frightful than imagination without taste. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Imagination)

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Importance)

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Intelligence and Intellectuals)

Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Intelligence and Intellectuals)

Every offense is avenged on earth. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Justice)

A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Justice)

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Kindness)

The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Knowledge)

What is not fully understood is not possessed. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Knowledge)

Never by reflection, but only by doing is self-knowledge possible to one. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Knowledge)

Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Language)

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Laughter)

We eagerly get hold of a law that serves as a weapon to our passions. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Law and Lawyers)

Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Leaders and Leadership)

I've studied now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine -- and even, alas! Theology -- from end to end with labor keen; and here, poor fool with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Learning)

In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Learning)

Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Learning)

No one as ever completed their apprenticeship. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Learning)

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Letters)

There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Lies and Lying)

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Life and Living)

There are nine requisites for contented living: HEALTH enough to make work a pleasure; WEALTH enough to support your needs; STRENGTH enough to battle with difficulties and forsake them; GRACE enough to confess your sins and overcome them; PATIENCE enough to toil until some good is accomplished; CHARITY enough to see some good in your neighbor; LOVE enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others; FAITH enough to make real the things of God; HOPE enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Life and Living)

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Life and Living)

Life is the childhood of our immortality. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Life and Living)

A person hears only what they understand. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Listening)

People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Listening)

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Literature)

If I love you, what business is it of yours? - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Love)

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Love)

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Love)

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. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Love)

If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be right with the whole. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Management)

When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Marriage)

We are the slaves of objects around us, and appear little or important according as these contract or give us room to expand. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Materialism)

The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Media)

The little man is still a man. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Men)

Girls we love for what they are; men for what they promise to be. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Men and Women)

The human mind will not be confined to any limits. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Mind)

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Mind)

A clever man commits no minor blunders. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Mistakes)

The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Mistakes)

Out of moderation a pure happiness springs. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Moderation)

Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Money)

Instruction does much, but encouragement does everything. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Motivation)

It is in human nature to relax, when not compelled by personal advantage or disadvantage. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Motivation)

Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Motivation)

The effects of good music are not just because it's new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Music)

The unnatural, that too is natural. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Nature)

Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Nature)

In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Nature)

Nature goes her own way and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Nature)

To hard necessity ones will and fancy must conform. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Necessity)

No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge. The same man will, indeed, often see and judge the same things differently on different occasions: early convictions must give way to more mature ones. Nevertheless, may not the opinions that a man holds and expresses withstand all trials, if he only remains true to himself and others? - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Opinions)

The right man is the one that seizes the moment. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Opportunity)

The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Originality)

Our passion are the true phoenixes; when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Passion)

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Passion)

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. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Past)

The little that is completed, vanishes from the sight of one who looks forward to what is still to do. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Patience)

If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Performance)

We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Perseverance)

Austere perseverance, hash and continuous... rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistible greater with time. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Perseverance)

Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe they are converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced; the majority allow themselves to be persuaded. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Persuasion)

People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Persuasion)

To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Persuasion)

Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Persuasion)

The philosopher must station themselves in the middle. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Philosophers and Philosophy)

Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Photography)

In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from side to side, thinking they will be more comfortable. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Politicians and Politics)

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Potential)

Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Power)

Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Power)

If you treat an individual... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Praise)

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Prejudice)

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Present)

Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Present)

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Present)

Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Present)

If the mass of people hesitate to act, strike with swiftly and with boldness, the brave heart that understands and seizes opportunity can everything. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Procrastination)

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Promotion)

Everything in the world may be endured except continual prosperity. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Prosperity)

A collections of anecdotes and maxims is the greatest of treasures for the man of the world, for he knows how to intersperse conversation with the former in fit places, and to recollect the latter on proper occasions. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Proverbs)

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Public)

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Purpose)

A purpose you impart is no longer your own. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Purpose)

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Purpose)

Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Purpose)

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Purpose)

If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Questions)

Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Quotations)

Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Quotations)

Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Reason)

People do not mind their faults being spread out before them, but they become impatient if called on to give them up. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Repentance)

By seeking and blundering we learn. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Research)

A person can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Retirement)

People may live as much retired from the world as they like, but sooner or later they find themselves debtor or creditor to some one. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Retirement)

A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Revolutions and Revolutionaries)

We can offer up much in the large, but to make sacrifices in little things is what we are seldom equal to. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Sacrifice)

A great scholar is seldom a great philosopher. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Scholars and Scholarship)

Whether a person shows themselves to be a genius in science or in writing a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, or the deed, is living and can live on. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Science and Scientists)

The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Science and Scientists)

Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing and of what is not knowable. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Science and Scientists)

Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Secrets)

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - self-discovery)

Trust yourself, then you will know how to live. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - self-esteem)

A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - self-esteem)

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Self-knowledge)

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Self-knowledge)

Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Self-love)

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Senses)

The senses do not deceive us, but the judgment does. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Senses)

Nothing is true, but that which is simple. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Simplicity)

There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Simplicity)

To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Skill)

It is delivery that makes the orators success. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Speakers and Speaking)

I do not speak of what I cannot praise. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Speakers and Speaking)

I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Strategies)

The people rate strength before everything. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Strength)

Stupidity is without anxiety. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Stupidity)

On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Success)

Superstition is the poetry of life. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Superstition)

Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Sympathy)

Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Talent)

A really great talent finds its happiness in execution. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Talent)

What chance gathers she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Teams and Teamwork)

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Thoughts and Thinking)

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Thoughts and Thinking)

Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Thoughts and Thinking)

Nothing is to be rated higher than the value of the day. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Time and Time Management)

We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Time and Time Management)

One always has time enough, if one will apply it well. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Time and Time Management)

Traveling is like gambling: it is always connected with winning and losing, and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Travel and Tourism)

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Trust)

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. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Truth)

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Understanding)

To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed -- That can make life a garden. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Understanding)

The man of understanding finds everything laughable. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Understanding)

So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent! - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Understanding)

Some of our weakness is born in us, some of it comes through education; it is a big question as to which gives us the most trouble. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Weakness)

No one should be rich except those who understand it. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Wealth)

The wealth that cannot be administered is a burden. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Wealth)

Those that are firm in their will mold the world to themselves. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Will and Will Power)

He who is firm in will molds the world to himself. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Will and Will Power)

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Wisdom)

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Wisdom)

Wisdom is found only in truth. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Wisdom)

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Wish and Wishing)

The Woman-Soul leadeth us upward and on! - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Women)

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Words)

Every spoken word arouses our self-will. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Words)

When ideas fail, words come in very handy. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Words)

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. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - World)

The world remains ever the same. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - World)

If any man wishes to write a clear style, let him first be clear in his thoughts. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Writers and Writing)

Every author in some degree portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Writers and Writing)

He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Writers and Writing)

Great endowments often announce themselves in youth in the form of singularity and awkwardness. - (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Youth)