Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.

The moment you enter society, you draw the key from your heart and put it in your pocket. Those who fail to do so are fools.

I can promise to be sincere, but not to be impartial.

What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.

Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.

I had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it in silence for years, something resulted which might […]

The poet should size the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.

Who wants to understand the poem Must go to the land of poetry; Who wishes to understand the poet Must go to the poet’s land.

Poetic fire sank low in me When it was God I sought to see, But up it flamed, up to the sky, When it was Evil I had to fly.

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