Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

It is not whether your words or actions are tough or gentle; it is the spirit behind your actions and words that announces your inner state.

Sometimes it's easier to show than it is to tell.

It's not that I don't like words. There's sometimes no need for words.

It's not what people do that matters, it's why they do it.

It is not whether your words or actions are tough or gentle; it is the spirit behind your actions and words that announces your inner state.

Words are not that important when you recognize intentions.

You can never tell about a person by guessing...that's why language was invented. Otherwise, we'd all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.

Never judge a man's actions until you know his motives

The spirit from which we act is the principal matter.

You can never be happy until you understand why you're doing what you're doing.

You don't need to be told some things. You can sometimes tell more by a man's silence and the set of his head than by what he says.

The heart communes best when it does not try to speak.

The secret of life was Breath. That was what I always wanted my words to do, to Breathe.

The sheer act of listening speaks volumes that even a great speech can't communicate.

A symbol serves to combine heart and intellect.

Perhaps that is the secret. It is not what we do, so much as why we do it.

Action can give us the feeling of being useful, but only words can give us a sense of weight and purpose.

There are no accidents... there is only some purpose that we haven't yet understood.

If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.

Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature.

Read the heart and not the letter for the pen cannot draw near the good intent.

Words are the wings of actions.

Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.

There is a narrow class of uses of language where you intend to communicate. Communication refers to an effort to get people to understand what one means. And that, certainly, is one use of language and a social use of it. But I don't think it is the only social use of language. Nor are social uses the only uses of language.

Do you serve a purpose, or purposely serve?