When there’s more sick ones than well ones, by golly the sick ones will lock the well ones up.
Eric F. Goldman (1915-1989) American historian, writer
Crucial Decade (1956)
We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.
Whoopi Goldberg (b. 1955) American actress, comedian, activist, writer [b. Caryn Elaine Johnson]
Parade Magazine
The moment avoiding failure becomes your motivator, you’re down the path of inactivity. You stumble only if you’re moving.
Roberto Goizueta (1931-1997) Cuban-American CEO of Coca-Cola
(Attributed)
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
[Eigentlich weiss man nur wenn man wenig weiss; mit dem Wissen wachst des Zweifel.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Spruche in Prosa [Proverbs in Prose] (1819)
Life is the childhood of our immortality.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
We each have only enough strength to complete those assignments that we are fully convinced are important.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
One man’s word is no man’s word; we should quietly hear both sides.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
If you assign people duties without granting them any rights, you must pay them well.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
Rest not! Life is sweeping by;
Go and dare before you die.
Something mighty and sublime
Leave behind to conquer time.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
It is better to be deceived by one’s friends than to deceive them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
Human beings reveal their character most clearly by what they find ridiculous.
[Durch nichts bezeichnen die Menschen mehr ihren Charakter als durch das, was sie lächerlich finden.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Elective Affinities [Die Wahlverwandtschaften], Part 2, ch. 4, “From Ottilie’s Journal [Aus Ottiliens Tagebuche]” (1809) [tr. Hollingdale (1971)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they find to laugh at.
[Niles ed. (1872)]
Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
[Source]
For an opposite perspective, see Lichtenberg.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
Used by Bruce Lee, and sometimes attributed to him.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
[Niemand ist mehr Sklave als der sich für frei hält ohne es zu sein.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Elective Affinities [Die Wahlverwandtschaften], Part 2, ch. 5, “From Ottilie’s Journal [Aus Ottiliens Tagebuche]” (1809) [tr. Wenckstern (1853)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:
No one is more a slave than the man who thinks himself free while he is not.
[Niles ed. (1872)]
No one is more a slave than he who thinks he is free without being so.
[tr. Hollingdale (1971)]
Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship [Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre] (1796)
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
[Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Spruche in Prosa [Proverbs in Prose] (1819)
Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
If any man wishes to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.
[Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige, die uns lehrt, uns selbst zu regieren.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Spruche in Prosa [Proverbs in Prose], 3.225 (1819)
Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
(Attributed)
When others kid me about being bald, I simply tell them that the way I figure it, the good Lord only gave men so many hormones, and if others want to waste theirs on growing hair, that’s up to them.
John Glenn (1921-2016) American politician and astronaut
(Attributed)
You can’t waste time and you can’t save time; you can only choose what you do at any given moment.
James Gleick (b. 1954) American writer, journalist, biographer
Wired (7.08), interview (Aug. 1999)
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.08/gleick.html?pg=2
The alternative to uncertainty is authority, against which science has fought for centuries.
James Gleick (b. 1954) American writer, journalist, biographer
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992)
The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.
Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945) American author
(Attributed)
All change is not growth; all movement is not forward.
Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945) American author
In Clifton Fadiman, I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Certain Eminent Men and Women of Our Time (1939 ed.)
(Source)
For I believe that an inability to accept God
Chris Glaser (contemp.) American writer, activist, minister
Come Home! (1990)
Reading theology is like reading pornography: instructive, provocative, but always pale in comparison to the real encounter.
Chris Glaser (contemp.) American writer, activist, minister
Come Home!, ch. 17 (1990)
Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.
William Gladstone (1809-1898) English Liberal politician, Prime Minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
(Attributed)
Justice delayed is justice denied.
William Gladstone (1809-1898) English Liberal politician, Prime Minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
(Attributed)
Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) American poet, commentator, activist, educator [b. Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr.]
(Attributed)
If Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric bulb were reported on tonight’s evening news, it would be reported as a threat to the candle industry.
Newt Gingrich (b. 1943) American politician [Newton Leroy Gingrich]
Speech at the Internet Commerce Expo (1999)
The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.
Newt Gingrich (b. 1943) American politician [Newton Leroy Gingrich]
(1989)
Interview when asked about lobbyist contributions to his campaign
SALLY: I’ve always dreamed of being a big hit singer.
DORIAN: Oh, can you sing?
SALLY: No, that’s why they call them dreams.Vince Gilligan (b. 1967) American screenwriter, producer
Home Fries (1998)
Sir, Sunday morning, although recurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always seems to take this railway by surprise.
W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) English playwright [William Schwenck Gilbert]
(Attributed)
Letter of complaint to the station manager
The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own.W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) English playwright [William Schwenck Gilbert]
The Mikado
It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking at it that one overcomes it; but, rather, often by working on the one next to it. Certain people and certain things require to be approached on an angle.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
Journal (26 Oct 1924) [tr. O’Brien (1951)]
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)
The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
The Counterfeiters, pt. 3, ch. 16 (Hildebrant) (1925)
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
André Gide (1869-1951) French author, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)
Let there be spaces in your togetherness
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Llet it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Marriage” (1923)
When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, “Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison.”
And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, “Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful.”Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Self-Knowledge” (1923)
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Pain” (1923)
I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Keep me from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Mirrors of the Soul (1965)
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
Sand and Foam (1926)
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
The Prophet, “On Prayer” (1923)