Quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sowing is not as difficult as reaping.

Must it so be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?

All beginnings are delightful; the threshold is the place to pause.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.

War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.

Wisdom is found only in truth.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

Willing is not enough, we must do.

Wisdom is only found in truth. [Ger., Die Weisheit ist nur in der Wahrheit.]

The unnatural, that too is natural.

One glance, one word from you gives more pleasure than all the wisdom of this world.

It would not be worth your while to reach the age of seventy if all the wisdom of the world were to be foolishness before God.

Why go further and further, Look, happiness is right here. Learn how to grab hold of luck, For luck is always there.

When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing

It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel - they get to know each other better.

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.

Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization.

Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.