Quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.

We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases.

What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.

Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew.

You will always find [hatred] strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

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.

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.

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.

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.

If I love you, what business is it of yours?

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.

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.

To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.

Know thyself? If I knew myself, I'd run away.

I bid the chords sweet music make, And all must follow in my wake.

A person hears only what they understand.

I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.

By seeking and blundering we learn.

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything." ( Letter to A.F. Oeser , Nov. 9, 1768)

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