Age Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Age merely shows what children we remain.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In all times it is only individuals that have advanced science, not the age.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Beware of wishing for anything in youth, because you will get it in middle age.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What you desire when young, you have in abundance when old.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly acheive in an age.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One spares old people just as one spares children.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People always fancy that we must become old to become wise; but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It would not be worth your while to reach the age of seventy if all the wisdom of the world were to…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It doesn't behoove elderly persons to follow fashion in their thinking nor in the way they dress.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We gladly put antiquity above our age but not posterity. Only a father doesn't begrudge his son's talent.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Someone criticized an elderly man for wooing young women. He replied that that was the only way to rejuvenation, which was, afterall,…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rash combat oft immortalizes man; if he should fall, he is renowned in song; but after-ages reckon not the ceaseless tears which…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Old age is never honored among us, but only indulged, as childhood is; and old men lose one of the most precious…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season. [Ger., Das Alter macht nicht…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love, whose power youth feels, is not suitable for the elderly, just as little as anything that presupposes productivity. It is rare…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What am I then...? Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

However often we turn to it [the Koran] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love grants in a moment What toil can hardly achieve in an age. [Ger., In einem Augenblick gewahrt die Liebe Was Muhe…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

National literature no longer means very much, the age of world literature is due.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One needs only to get old to become milder; I don't see anyone make a mistake I hadn't also made.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When intelligent and sensible people despise knowledge in their old age, it is only because they have asked too much of it…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To become aware in time when young of the advantages of age; to maintain the advantages of youth in old age: both…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The brilliant passes, like the dew at morn; The true endures, for ages yet unborn.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe