Johann Wolfgang Goethe

"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable."

"A wrong-doer is often a man who has left something undone, not always he who has done something."

"The deed is all that matters, not the boasting."

"I am not bound to please thee with my answer."

"The most important thing we ever ask is: for what purpose?"

"Wer nach aussen schaut, träumt; wer nach innen blickt, wacht auf."

"The greatest genius is the most indebted man."

"Not by constraint or severity of law alone can a state be preserved."

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise."

"The person born with a talent for finding fault will find plenty of it everywhere."

"There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste."

"The way to understand the divine is to work with the divine through nature."

"One ought as a rule to respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and imprisonment."

"Everything in life requires us to play a part."

"The greatest genius is the most indebted to the achievements of his predecessors."

"Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice."

"One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man."

"Art is long, life is short."

"The beautiful is a manifestation of secret natural laws which otherwise would be hidden from us forever."

"There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness."

"Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean."

"We learn geology at the feet of volcanoes."

"Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action."

"The undone deed is not yet dead; it lives and works."

"Architecture is frozen music."

"The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives."

"A man's character is revealed not by what he does under favorable conditions, but by what he does when tested."

"To put one's faith in reason is only possible for those who take delight in it."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind simultaneously."

"Nature has neither core nor rind; she is everything at once."