Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a German poet, playwright and natural scientist, author of Faust and the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Alongside literature he worked seriously on botany and a theory of colour, and held state office in Weimar for over fifty years. His output covers nearly every genre available to him.
About this theme: Happiness
Few subjects have been written about so much with so little agreement. For Aristotle happiness was not a feeling but a way of living — eudaimonia, visible only when a life is viewed whole. For the Epicureans it was the absence of disturbance. For the Stoics it was a consequence of virtue and never a target. None of these is the same as being in a good mood, yet that substitution is the one most often made.
More by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
- He who moves not forward goes backward.
- In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world all rests on perseverance.
- Nothing is worth more than this day.
- As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
More on Happiness
- The earth laughs in flowers.— Ralph Waldo Emerson
- True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.— Seneca
- He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.— Lao Tzu
- Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.— Epictetus
- He is richest who is content with the least.— Socrates