In all times it is only individuals that have advanced science, not the age.
The brilliant passes, like the dew at morn; The true endures, for ages yet unborn.
A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.
Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.
If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be right with the whole.
As long as you don't practice it, this dying and becoming, You are only a dreary guest on this dark earth.
Instruction does much, but encouragement everything." (Letter to A.F. Oeser, Nov. 9, 1768)
Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization.
At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which put Socrates to death by poison, the age which burnt Huss. The ages have always remained alike.
To quit smoking, you must first want to quit, but then you must also do the quitting
Whoever strikes at marriage either by word or act undermines the foundation of all moral society.
Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color....
You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.
Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language.
He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.
Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.
We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects.
What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?
Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action
If you don't know foreign languages, you don't know anything about your own.
Tolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.
Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly acheive in an age.
One should not search for anything behind the phenomena. They themselves are the message.
Waste not a day in vain digression; with resolute, courageous trust seek every possible impression and make it firmly your posession you'll then work on because you must.
Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.
The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.
One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best.
Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.
Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.
One needs only to get old to become milder; I don't see anyone make a mistake I hadn't also made.
Are we not also married to conscience which we would love to get rid of often enough since it is more bothersome than a man or a woman ever could become?
When married one has to get into an argument once in a while since in this way one learns about the other.
What you desire when young, you have in abundance when old.
One spares old people just as one spares children.
National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten thearrival of that age.
The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it.
It would not be worth your while to reach the age of seventy if all the wisdom of the world were to be foolishness before God.
Beware of wishing for anything in youth, because you will get it in middle age.
Ah, how often I've cursed those foolish pages, That showed my youthful sufferings to everyone! If Werther had been my brother, and I'd killed him, His sad ghost could hardly have persecuted me more.
The rabble also vent their rage in words. [Ger., Es macht das Volk sich auch mit Worten Lust.]
Love grants in a moment What toil can hardly achieve in an age. [Ger., In einem Augenblick gewahrt die Liebe Was Muhe kaum in langer Zeit erreicht.]
The rogue has everywhere the advantage.
Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.
Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner eigenen.He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.
Age merely shows what children we remain.
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.
Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing
He who moves not forward, goes backward.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel - they get to know each other better.
What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.
All of us, just because we are able to talk, also believe we are able to talk about language.
When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.
When translating one must proceed up to the intranslatable; only then one becomes aware of the foreign nation and the foreign tongue.
He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own.
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different
The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.
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.
Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season. [Ger., Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht, Es findet uns nur noch als wahre Kinder.]
The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect.
A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.
Lose this day loitering 'Twill be the same old story, Tomorrow and the next, Even more dilatory. Whatever you would do, Or dream of doing, begin it! Boldness has power, genius, and magic in it. Begin it now.
When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face.
Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image
Wealth lost is something lost, honor lost is something lost: Courage lost all is lost.
National literature no longer means very much, the age of world literature is due.
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.
We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love
Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.
We gladly put antiquity above our age but not posterity. Only a father doesn't begrudge his son's talent.