Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
To become aware in time when young of the advantages of age; to maintain the advantages of youth in old age: both are pure fortune.
Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another.
Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.
What sort of faults may we retain, nay, even cherish in ourselves? Those faults which are rather pleasant than offensive to others.
Art is in itself noble; that is why the artist has no fear of what is common. This, indeed, is already ennobled when he takes it up.
The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament.
Our mistakes and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have accomplished and attained.
Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
Austere perseverance, hash and continuous... rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistible greater with time.
That I be not as those are who spend the day in complaining of headache and the night in drinking the wine which gives the headache!
There is nothing outside of us that is not at the same time in us, and as the external world has its colors the eye, too, has colors.
Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it.
People can only live with their equals, and not even with them; for in the long run they cannot tolerate that someone is their equal.
As beauteous is the world, and many a joy Floats through its wide dominion. But, alas, When we would seize the winged good, it flies.
Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.
People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.
When translating one must proceed up to the intranslatable; only then one becomes aware of the foreign nation and the foreign tongue.
Yes, my love, who soever lives, loses, . . . but he also wins. [Ger., Ja, meine Liebe, wer lebt, verliebt . . . aber er gewinnt auch.]
There are but few who have ideas and are, at the same time, capable of action. Ideas enlarge but stymie, action enlivens but confines.
If you want to understand poetry, You have to go to its origin, If you want to understand the poet, You have to go to the Poet's home.
Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.
Most man only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.
There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste. [Ger., Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]
It is a misfortune to pass at once from observation to conclusion, and to regard both as of equal value; but it befalls many a student.
Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.
Whoever would understand the poet Must go into the poet's country. [Ger., Wer den Dichter will verstehen Muss in Dichters Lande gehen.]
Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation.
No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge.
Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.
When I say to the Moment flying; 'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!' Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!
Art is based on a strong sentiment of religion,--on a profound and mighty earnestness; hence it is so prone to co-operate with religion.
The rainbow mirrors human aims and action. Think, and more clearly wilt thou grasp it, seeing Life is but light in many-hued reflection.
The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.
Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic
Look at a man the way he is and he only becomes worse, but look at him as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be.
Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.
I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.
Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.
Thou art in the end what thou art. Put on wigs with millions of curls, set thy foot upon ell-high rocks. Thou abidest ever--what thou art.
How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
Were the eye not of the sun, How could we behold the light? If God's might and ours were not as one, How could His work enchant our sight?
Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.
I can promise to be upright, but not to be without bias. [Ger., Aufrichtig zu sein kann ich versprechen; unparteiisch zu sein aber nicht.]
Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading, in part, some great book.
It is a mistake for a taciturn, serious-minded woman to marry a jovial man, but not for a serious-minded man to marry a lighthearted woman.
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.
The true poet is called to take in the splendor of the world and for that reason will always be inclined to praise rather than tofind fault.
We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies
Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.