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.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, Christian views, and philosophical thought in the Western world from the late...

More quotations from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

More quotations tagged with “duty”

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The paths of glory at least lead to the grave, but the paths of duty may not get you any where.

—James Thurber

death glory duty

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

—George Eliot

There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.

—Edward Bulwer-Lytton

There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.

History

11 Jul 2015 Added