Common sense is the genius of humanity.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.
Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.
The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.
Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.
The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
All things are only transitory.
We can't form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.
The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.
He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.
Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.
He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.
Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.
To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.
If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Age merely shows what children we remain.
If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.
Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.
The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.
The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.
The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.
Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Love does not dominate; it cultivates.
He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.
If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.
It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.
For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.
