For I have been a man, and that means to have been a fighter. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Accepting good advice means nothing other than to strengthen one's own ability. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
People are always talking about originality, but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Tolerance should really be only a temporary attitude; it must lead to recognition. To tolerate means to offend. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Artists have a double relationship towards nature: they are her master and her slave at the same time. They are her slave… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Wood burns because it has the proper stuff for that purpose in it; and a man becomes renowned because he has the necessary stuff in him. Renown is not to be sought, and all pursuit of it is vain. A person may, indeed, by skillful conduct and various artificial means, make a sort of name for himself; but if the… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share
To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation,… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquility of soul. Hence… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share
True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Copy Share Image
Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
