Character Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Our virtues and view spring from one root.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Passions are defects or virtues in the highest power.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Where I cannot be moral, my power is gone.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The history of a man is in his character.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Beauty vanishes; virtue is lasting.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The history of mankind is his character.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What a mighty spirit in a narrow bosom. [Ger., Welch' hoher Geist in einer engen Brust.]

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You don't love if you don't take the beloved's faults for virtues.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talents are nurtured best in solitude, But character on life's tempestuous seas!

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I can promise to be upright, but not to be without bias. [Ger., Aufrichtig zu sein kann ich versprechen; unparteiisch zu sein…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Moral epochs have their course as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun,…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions,…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Character - in things great and small - is indicated when a man (or person) pursues with sustained follow-through what he feels…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We love a girl for very different qualities than understanding. We love her for her beauty, her youth, her mirth, her confidingness,…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Without my attempts in natural science, I should never have learned to know mankind such as it is. In nothing else can…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius.…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Left to itself every literature will exhaust its vitality, if it is not refreshed by the interest and contributions of a foreign…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Character calls forth character.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Judge a man's character by what he finds ridiculous.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Character is constructed amidst the tempests of the World

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The absence of temptation is the absence of virtue.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Conscience is the virtue of observers and not of agents of action.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe