Aphorisms Galore!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German author; b. 1749; d. 1832

Aphorisms Attributed to This Aphorist

tiny.ag/tymlwb79  ·   Fair (3392 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as greater than he is.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Vice and Virtue and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/ufko7fwv  ·   Fair (3086 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I do not know myself and God forbid that I should.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/qeydmvyx  ·   Fair (899 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/ucas5skv  ·   Fair (1249 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Life and Death

tiny.ag/toy71ing  ·   Fair (893 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Love and Hate

tiny.ag/juocdkwi  ·   Fair (869 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Ordinary people know little of the time and effort it takes to learn to read. I have been eighty years at it, and have not reached my goal.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/he6rec8v  ·   Fair (842 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Success and Failure