Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - People Quotes

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They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
People do not understand what it costs in time and suffering to learn how to read. I have been working at it for eighty years, and I still can't say that I've succeeded.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A state of true and universal tolerance is best ensured by leaving alone the peculiarities of men and peoples.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ignorant people raise questions which were answered by the wise thousands of years ago.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Since nothing is so important to people as their opinions, everyone who propounds an opinion looks about him right and left for props with which to support it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
People will allow their faults to be shown them; they will let themselves be punished for them; they will patiently endure many things because of them; they only become impatient when they have to lay them aside.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.

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 character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
People say, "Artist, study nature!" But it is no small matter to develop what is noble out of what is common, beauty out of what lacks form.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When two people are really happy about one another one can generally assume they are mistaken.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Since you know me and my destiny only too well, you probably also know what attracts me to all unfortunate people.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you inquire what the people are like here,
I must answer, "The same as everywhere!"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I have often felt a bitter sorrow at the thought of the German people, which is so estimable in the individual and so wretched in the generality. A comparison of the German people with other peoples arouses a painful feeling, which I try to overcome in every possible way.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
People may live as much retired from the world as they please; but sooner or later, before they are aware, they will find themselves debtor or creditor to somebody.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If some people hadn't felt obliged to repeat what is untrue simply because they had at one point maintained it, they would have turned into quite different people.

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 and of themselves.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I'm sorry for people who make a great to-do about the transitory nature of things and get lost in meditations of earthly nothingness. Surely we are here precisely so as to turn what passes into something that endures; but this is possible only if you can appreciate both.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I hate all bungling as I do sin, but particularly bungling in politics, which leads to the misery and ruin of many thousands and millions of people.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe