Men quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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QuoteWorld :: Men :: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Men category:

Quote	Rating
"God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom."
"He who seizes the [right] moment is the right man."
"Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life."
"To live as one likes is plebian; the noble man aspires to order and law."
"He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure."
"The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks."
"Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation."
"Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly achieve in an age."
"A man who does not know foreign language is ignorant of his own."
"The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything."
"For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is."
"Whenever I hear people talking about 'liberal ideas,' I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions."
"A man's errors are what make him amiable."
"I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut."
"The ground that a good man treads is hallowed."
"Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny."
"Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires."
"The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence."
"First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth."
"Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at."
"The society of women is the element of good manners."
"Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension."
"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men."
"The highest happiness of man ... is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable."
"What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves."
"One man's word is no man's word; we should quietly hear both sides."
"The man of understanding finds everything laughable."
"The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings."
"Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different."
"Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient."
"If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own."
"Correction does much, but encouragement does more."
"Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man."
"Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be, and he will become as he can and should be."
"Everything a human being wants can be divided into four components: love, adventure, power and fame."
"A clever man commits no minor blunders."
"When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be."
"Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game."
"It is a mistake for a taciturn, serious-minded woman to marry a jovial man, but not for a serious-minded man to marry a lighthearted woman."