Johann von Goethe

“A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness.”

“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.”

“Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.”

“To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities.”

“Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

“Everybody undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has the aptitude for it or not.”

“Man is not born to solve the problems of the universe, but to find out what he has to do ... within the limits of his comprehension.”

“God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.”

“In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world, all rests on perseverance.”

“We are never further from our wishes than when we imagine that we possess what we have desired.”