Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Mean Quotations

I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and can seize and use them.

To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign.

Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.

No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to brag about priority; for it's simply unconscious conceit, not to admit frankly that one is a plagiarist.

Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.

Accepting good advice means nothing other than to strengthen one's own ability.

Let no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each one perfect in himself.

Merely to breathe freely does not mean to live.

For I have been a man, and that means to have been a fighter.

Several classical sayings that one likes to repeat had quite a different meaning from the ones later times attributed to them.

Tolerance should really be only a temporary attitude; it must lead to recognition. To tolerate means to offend.

National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten thearrival of that age.

Artists have a double relationship towards nature: they are her master and her slave at the same time. They are her slave in so far as they must work with means of this world so as to be understood; her master in so far as they subject these means to their higher goals and make them subservient to them.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff for that purpose in it; and a man becomes renowned because he has the necessary stuff in him. Renown is not to be sought, and all pursuit of it is vain. A person may, indeed, by skillful conduct and various artificial means, make a sort of name for himself; but if the inner jewel is wanting, all is vanity, and will not last a day.

Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquility of soul. Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and object are mostly hypocrites.

Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them.

To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.

To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions, means ruiningtheir craft.

After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end of being poets. Poets send their creations into the world, it is up to the reader, the aesthetician, and the critic to determine what they wanted to say with their creations.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.

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.

The highest problem of every art is, by means of appearances, to produce the illusion of a loftier reality

The persons born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.

National literature no longer means very much, the age of world literature is due.