Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Life Quotes

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Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If thou wouldst hear what seemly is and fit, inquire of noble woman; they can tell, who in life's common usage hold their place by graceful deed and aptly chosen word.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Natural system — a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable goal. Scientific research is therefore endless, whether one proceed analytically into minutiae or follow the trail as a whole, in all its breadth and height.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This is wisdom's final thought:
Freedom alone he earns as well as life
Who day by day must conquer them anew.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Genius is formed in quiet, character in the stream of human life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You often say to yourself in the course of your life that you ought to avoid having too much business, 'polypragmosyne' [incessant activity], and, more especially, that the older you get, the more you ought to avoid entering on new business. But it's all very well saying this, and giving yourself andothers good advice. The very fact of growing older means taking up a new business; all our circumstances change, and we must either stop doing anything at all or else willing and consciously take on the new role we have to play on life's stage.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The flowers of life are but illusions. How many fade away and leave no trace.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Mineralogy is a science for the Understanding, for practical life; for its subjects are something dead which cannot rise again, and there is no room for synthesis.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life best.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He who thinks to realize when he is older the hopes and desires of youth is always deceiving himself, for every decade of a man's life possesses its own kind of happiness, its own hopes and prospects.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Science helps us before all things in this, that it somewhat lightens the feeling of wonder with which Nature fills us; then, however, as life becomes more and more complex, it creates new facilities for the avoidance of what would do us harm and the promotion of what will do us good.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Freedom and life are earned by those alone
Who conquer them each day anew

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In general the sciences put some distance between themselves and life, and make their way back to it only by a roundabout path.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect; and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you have a great work in your head, nothing else thrives near it; all other thoughts are repelled, and the pleasure of life itself is for the time lost.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My worthy friend, gray are all theories
And green alone Life's golden tree.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hope of new pleasure, is it worthwhile to dress and undress?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticeable manner; it is supposed to make us aware of what it would be valuable to instruct ourselves in; we must deduce the lesson on our own, just as with life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
So dear night the half of life is, And the fairest half indeed.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
All theory, my friend, is grey, But green is life's glad golden tree.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete character.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Among all peoples, the Greeks have dreamt life's dream most beautifully.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe