Looking for the best and inspirational Johann Wolfgang quotes?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, philosopher, and politician. He is considered the most influential writer in the German language and one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe.
He was born on August 28, 1749, in Frankfurt am Main. His father, Johann Caspar Goethe (1710-1782), was a wealthy silk trader from Germany who was also active as a courtier for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII. He grew up with his sister Cornelia and brother Heinrich (1757-1828). He studied law at Leipzig, and then he moved to Strasbourg, where he met his future wife, Christiane Vulpius (1765-1816).
He was a polymath: he drew on his knowledge of philosophy, science, and art when writing, which is evident in many of his works. His literary career began with his first novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther”.
Take a look at his inspirational quotes and the way they can change the way you view yourself.
101 Inspirational Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes
“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.”
“The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.”
“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.”
“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.”
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Courage has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin it and the work is completed.”
“The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.”
“There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.”
“Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.”
“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”
“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”
“A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.”
“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.”
“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”
“To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.”
“We need a constitution, we need rules, but we don’t need a wall,“
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
“Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.”
“How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it.”
“Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.”
“Wealth lost is something lost, honor lost is something lost: Courage lost all is lost.”
“Giving is the business of the rich.”
“Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.”
“Doubt grows with knowledge.”
“The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.”
“The first and last thing required of genius is, love of the truth.”
“A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.”
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.”
“Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.”
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”
“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
“Everything is hard before it is easy”
“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.”
“Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.”
“Personality is everything in art and poetry.”
“What you can do, or think you can, begin it.”
“Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.”
“Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.”
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.”
“One must be something, in order to do something.”
“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather…”
“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.”
“Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.”
“Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.”
“Every situation, every moment — is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.”
“I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.”
“Traveling is like gambling: it is always connected with winning and losing, and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for.”
“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.”
“In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.”
“The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.”
“Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.”
“We will burn that bridge when we come to it.”
“The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.”
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
“He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.”
“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”
“At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you.”
“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”
“Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.”
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
“Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world“
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
“Doubt can only be removed by action.”
“One never goes so far as when one doesn’t know where one is going.”
“Character develops itself in the stream of life.”
“Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.”
“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.”
“It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.”
“The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.”
“Enjoy what you can, endure what you must“
“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
“He who moves not forward goes backward.”
“Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.”
“The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.”
“To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.”
“How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know what is in thee.”
“A person hears only what they understand.”
“To create something you must be something.”
“Wisdom is found only in truth.”
“Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.”
“If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.”
“Each ten years of a man’s life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.”
“By seeking and blundering we learn.”
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
“A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.”
“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
“Whatever you do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
“There is nothing more frightful than imagination without taste.”
“For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.”
“Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.”
“The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks.”
“Man’s greatest achievement is astonishment.”
“Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.”
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
“Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.”
“Common sense is the genius of humanity.”
“Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach.”
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”
“Treat people as they are and they will remain as they are. Treat people as they could be and they will become as they could be.”
