Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

In an active life is sown the seed of wisdom; but he who reflects not, never reaps; has no harvest from it, but carries the burden of age without the wages of experience; nor knows himself old, but from his infirmities, the parish register, and the contempt of mankind. And age, if it has not esteem, has nothing.

Never by reflection, but only by doing is self- knowledge possible to one.

How can one learn to know oneself? Never by introspection, rather by action.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.

I feel like I've reached an age where I can relax a little bit with the knowledge of what I've been through, take all that experience and use it. I love the challenge of trying to get back to where I've been, and beyond it.

I've become a lot wiser over the years.

As the years go by, you get to know yourself better and learn what works for you.

Every year you learn as a person, about yourself, what works for you and what doesn't.

I think that no matter how old you get, you are always learning about yourself.

I have learned a lot over the years. I have learned how best to use my attributes. That comes with a bit of knowledge and a bit of wisdom.

I draw inspiration from everything I've seen and been through. My life has been my biggest teacher.

I've seen a lot of things and I've experienced a lot of things.

After 30 years I have realized the greatest pleasure I can get is to have learnt.

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

How can we learn self-knowledge? Never by taking thought but rather by action. Try to do your duty and you'll soon discover what you're like.

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.

I guess experience is just learning at first hand the things you knew all along anyway.

How many years you have to keep on doing, until you know what to do and how to do!

Experience teaches us, but we scarcely know what.

What I know at sixty, I knew as well at twenty. Forty years of a long, superfluous, labor of verification.

What I've learned in the last few years is that I am merely a storyteller.

I would be a poorer person if the only things I knew were what I had found out for myself.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

The doer alone learneth.