Maxims and Reflections: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Goethe was an Anatomist, Botanist, Geologist, Literary genius (Faust, Italian Journey: 1786-1788, Maxims and Reflections, etc.), Pictorial artist, Translator, Theater director. During my recent travels I have been reading his Maxims and Reflections. Thought I'd pass on some of his wisdom.

A person hears only what they understand.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

If you treat an individual ... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.

It is after all the greatest art to limit and isolate oneself.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

What is uttered from the heart alone, will win the hearts of others to your own.

Opponents believe they are refuting us when they repeat their own opinion and take no notice of ours.

You really only know when you know little; doubt grows with knowledge.

You can neither protect nor defend yourself against criticism; you have to act in defiance of it and this is gradually accepted.

Why do we hear such everlasting negative talk! People all imagine they’ll be giving something away if they recognize the least bit of merit.

Mastery is often seen as egoism.

Absolute activity, of whatever kind, ultimately leads to bankruptcy.

A great failing: to see yourself as more than you are and to value yourself at less than you are worth.

People who think deeply and seriously are on bad terms with the public.

Nothing is more disagreeable than a majority; for it consists of a few powerful people in the lead, rogues who are adaptable, weak people who assimilate with the rest, and the crowd that trundles along behind without the slightest notion of what it’s after.

One is never deceived, one deceives oneself.

I’m on good terms with all the people who are my immediate concern, and as to the rest, I won’t go on putting up with things from them, and that’s the end of the matter.

We’re only really thinking when we can’t think out fully what we are thinking about.

Love does not dominate; it cultivates.

He who does not see his lover’s faults as virtues is not in love.

You can’t love anyone unless you can be sure of his presence when you need him.