Quote

What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Talk
Mean
Impatience
Much
Possesses
Men
Unhappiness
Time
Miserable
People
Choose
Call

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Image
I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times... Man is a dialogue between nature and God. On other planets this dialogue will doubtless be of a higher and profounder character. What is lacking is Self-Knowledge. After that the rest will follow.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Some books seem to have been written, not to teach us anything, but to let us know that the author has known something.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
In comradeship is danger countered best.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
We are not all equal, nor can we be so.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Without haste! without rest! Bind the motto to thy breast! Bear it with thee as a spell Storm or sunshine , guard it well.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
No matter what one says, you can recognize only those matters that are equal to you. Only rulers who possess extraordinary abilities will recognize and esteem properly extraordinary abilities in their subjects and servants.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
A joy shared is a joy doubled.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away and leave no trace behind! How few yield any fruit,--and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
One must not criticize that which is common since it remains always the same.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Only that type of story deserves to be called moral that shows us that one has the power within oneself to act, out of the conviction that there is something better, even against one's own inclination.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Beware of wishing for anything in youth, because you will get it in middle age.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot that it is securely founded that it be successfully executed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands so seldom of others the impossible, but demands just that of the portraitists.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Thank God when He lays a burden on thee, and thank Him when He takes it off.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe