Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832) was a German poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher. He was not a Christian, yet he described Christianity as the ultimate religion.
“What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.”
“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”
“If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.”
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is exclusively my own.”
"Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, maybe be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an elect few."
“Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion”
“This is the true measure of love: When we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will ever love in the same way after us”
“What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.”
"A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss."
"A person hears only what they understand."
"Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth."
"Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God."
"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home."
"If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."
"Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago."
"It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed."
"Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean."
"Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is."
"Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time."
"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable."
"One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude."
"Precaution is better than cure."
"The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves."
"The coward only threatens when he is safe."
"Wisdom is found only in truth."
"Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must."
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
"A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart."
"We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
"Everything is hard before it is easy"
"He who moves not forward, goes backward."
