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Who is the happiest man? He who is alive to the merit of others, and can rejoice in their enjoyment as if it were his own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Age: 82 †
Born: 1749
Born: August 22
Died: 1832
Died: March 22
Aphorist
Art Critic
Art Theorist
Autobiographer
Botanist
Composer
Diarist
Diplomat
Jurist
Lawyer
Librarian
Librettist
Literary
Frankfurt/Main
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Goethe
goethe
johann wolfgang von goethe
joh. wolfg. von goethe
j. w. von goethe
Inspirational
Others
Men
Happiest
Rejoice
Enjoyment
Merit
Alive
Happiness

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences progress in even greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires: beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Beware of dissipating your powers strive constantly to concentrate them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He is the happiest man who can see the connection between the end and the beginning of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities, merits, and achievements, but because of one's individual existence. At best, therefore, it is a frivolous beauty whim it befits.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Is not the core of nature in the heart of man?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is bad governments, not bad people, who cause revolutions.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The threshold is the place of expectation.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes. It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these pages of the book of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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New inventions can and will be made however, nothing new can be thought of that concerns moral man. Everything has already been thought and said which at best we can express in different forms and give new expressions to.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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How happy he who can still hope to lift himself from this sea of error! What we know not, that we are anxious to possess, and cannot use what we know.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe