Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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(569 quotes found)
“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.”
“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.”
“If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”
“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.”
“We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.”
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
“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.”
“Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.”
“Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking”
“My peace is gone, my heart is heavy.”