Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”

“I think of you when upon the sea the sun flings her beams.I think of you when the moonlight shines in silvery streams.I see you when upon the distant hills the dust awakes;At night when on a fragile bridge the traveler quakes.I hear you when the billows rise on high,With murmur deep.To tread the silent grove where wander I,When all's asleep.”

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

“Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done.”

“The human mind will not be confined to any limits.”

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

“To end the greatest work designed,A thousand hands need but one mind.”

“There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.”

“The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.”

“Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.”

“Nothing is more highly to be prized than the value of each day”

“In this world one is seldom reduced to make a selection between two alternatives. There are as many varieties of conduct and opinion as there are turns of feature between an aquiline nose and a flat one.”

“One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best.”

“I call architecture frozen music.”

“Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.”

“Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.”

“Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.”

“Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.”