Maxims and Reflections

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There are two powers that make for peace: what is right, and what is fitting.

If a man thinks about his physical or moral condition, he generally finds that he is ill.

What a man does not understand, he does not possess.

For the man of the world a collection of anecdotes and maxims is of the greatest value, if he knows how to intersperse the one in his conversation at fitting moments, and remember the other when a case arises for their application.

When you lose interest in anything, you also lose the memory for it.

There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing.