Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.”

“Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.”

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

“Character develops itself in the stream of life.”

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”

“Girls we love for what they are young men for what they promise to be.”

“Love can do much, but duty more.”

“Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.”

“One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.”

“Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?”

“To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.”

“Age merely shows what children we remain.”

“What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.”

“The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.”

“Personality is everything in art and poetry.”

“The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.”

“He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.”

“It is after all the greatest art to limit and isolate oneself.”

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

“If I love you, what business is it of yours?”

“A useless life is an early death.”

“Death is a commingling of eternity with time in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.”

“An unused life is an early death.”

“We can't form our children on our own concepts we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.”