Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Men Quotations [Page 3]

Woman is mistress of the art of completely imbittering the life of the person on whom she depends.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

Noble be man, Helpful and good! For that alone Sets him apart From every other creature On earth.

The history of a man is in his character.

The happiest man is the one who finds happiness at home.

The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.

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

Sound and sufficient reason falls, after all, to the share of but few men, and those few men exert their influence in silence.

The theater has often been at variance with the pulpit; they ought not to quarrel. How much is it to be wished that in both the celebration of nature and of God were intrusted to none but men of noble minds.

The world sees only the reflection of merit; therefore when you come to know a really great man intimately, you may as often find him above as below his reputation.

If thou wouldst hear what seemly is and fit, inquire of noble woman; they can tell, who in life's common usage hold their place by graceful deed and aptly chosen word.

A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.

Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man's nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.

Shakespeare is a great psychologist, and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.

Forget not that the man who cannot enjoy his own natural gifts in silence, and find his reward in the exercise of them, will generally find himself badly off.

Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.

For a brave man deserves a well-endowed girl. [Ger., Denn ein wackerer Mann verdient ein begutertes Madchen.]

Beloved brother, let us not forget that man can never get away from himself. [Ger., Lass uns, geliebter Bruder, nicht vergessen, Dass von sich selbst der Mensch nicht scheiden kann.]

He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them. [Ger., Die Menschen furchtet nur, wer sie nicht kennt Und wer sie meidet, wird sie bald verkennen.]

A man may twist as he pleases, and do what he pleases, but he inevitably comes back to the track to which nature has destined him.

The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world.

What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves. [Ger., Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige die uns lehrt uns selbst zu regieren.]

As a man is, so is his God; therefore God was so often an object of mockery. [Ger., Wie einer ist, so ist sein Gott, Darum ward Gott so oft zu Spott.]

What men usually say of misfortunes, that they never come alone, may with equal truth be said of good fortune; nay, of other circumstances which gather round us in a harmonious way, whether it arise from a kind of fatality, or that man has the power of attracting to himself things that are mutually related.

Man, be he who he may, experiences a last piece of good fortune and a last day. [Ger., Der Mensch erfahrt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Gluck und einen letzten Tag.]

When we see the many grave-stones which have fallen in, which have been defaced by the footsteps of the congregation, which lie buried under the ruins of the churches, that have themselves crumbled together over them; we may fancy the life after death to be as a second life, into which man enters in the figure, or the picture or the inscription, and lives longer there than when he was really alive. But this figure also, this second existence, dies out too, sooner or later. Time will not allow himself to be cheated of his rights with the monuments of men or with themselves.

Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.

To a valet no man is a hero. [Ger., Es gibt fur den Kammerdiener keiner Helden.]

Nobody, they say, is a hero to his valet. Of course; for a man must be a hero to understand a hero. The valet, I dare say, has great respect for some person of his own stamp.

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.

Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season. [Ger., Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht, Es findet uns nur noch als wahre Kinder.]

A man is not little when he finds it difficult to cope with circumstances, but when circumstances overmaster him.

In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be; but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant.

To be active is the primary vocation of man.

To the man of thought almost nothing is really ridiculous.

A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him...but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.

Insofar as he makes use of his healthy senses, man himself is the best and most exact scientific instrument possible. The greatest misfortune of modern physics is that its experiments have been set apart from man, as it were, physics refuses to recognize nature in anything not shown by artificial instruments, and even uses this as a measure of its accomplishments.

It is with art as with love: How can a man of the world,with all his distractions, keep the inwardness which an artist must possess if he hopes to attain perfection? That inwardness which the spectator must share if he is to understand the work as the artist wishes and hopes... Believe me, talents are like virtues; either you must love them for their own sake or renounce them altogether. And they are only recognized and rewarded when we have practised them in secret, like a dangerous mystery."

The soul of man is like to water; from Heaven it cometh, to Heaven it riseth And then returning to earth, forever alternating.

You are certainly wrong to compare suicide ... with great accomplishments, since it cannot be considered as anything but a weakness. After all, it is easier to die than to endure a harrowing life with fortitude.

A man avails himself of the truth so long as it is serviceable; but he seizes on what is false with a passionate eloquence as soon as he can make a momentary use of it.

The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity--to see him taken up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling miserably over everything.

A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.

If a man sets out to study all the laws, he will have no time left to transgress them.

A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.

Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre.

The society of women is the element of good manners.

Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.

Most man only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.

No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge.

The senses do not deceive us, but the judgment does.

Stood I, O Nature! man alone in thee, Then were it worth one's while a man to be.

One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.

To create something you must be something.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man.

The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.

Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.

Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.

You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.

It is not enough to take steps which may someday lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.

A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.

We can really respect a man only if he doesn't always look out for himself.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.

No doubt you are right... there would be far less suffering amongst mankind if men... did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.

Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.

We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection--which we have ourselves created.

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

The right man is the one who seizes the moment.

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.

A man who cannot command himself will always be a slave.

Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything.

Such is the frailty of man that even where he makes the truest and most forcible impression in the memory, in the heart of his beloved, there also he must perish.

Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced.

The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.

If we could do away with death, we wouldn't object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time.

Our senses don't deceive us: our judgment does

A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness.

The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.

Old age is never honored among us, but only indulged, as childhood is; and old men lose one of the most precious rights of man,--that of being judged by their peers.

One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.

There is no better deliverance from the world than through art, and a man can form no surer bond with it.

Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

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

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.

We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

Girls we love for what they are; men for what they promise to be.

At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you.

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

What a day it is when we must envy the men in their graves.

When Nature begins to reveal her open secret to a man, he feels an irresistible longing for her worthiest interpreter, Art.

Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.

A person can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days.

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.