Quotes from Goethe

Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in his own peculiar way.

Happy the man who early learns the difference between his wishes and his powers.

He who does not think too much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

How can we learn to know ourselves? By reflection, never, but by our actions. Attempt to do your duty, and you will immediately find what is in you.

Most men, even the most accomplished, are of limited faculties; every one sets a value on certain qualities in himself and others: these alone he is willing to favour, these alone will he have cultivated.

No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.

Real and solid happiness springs from moderation.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.

The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.

The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no longer judged by their contemporaries.

There is nothing more pitiable in the world than an irresolute man vacillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two, and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them.

We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies.

We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.

We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.

We in reality only know when we doubt a little. With knowledge comes doubt.

We rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our ignorance.

We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble one another.

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

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.

If you don't feel it, you'll never get it.

Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.