We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection — which we have ourselves created.

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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"It’s true that nothing in this world makes us so necessary to others as the affection we have for them."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love

"Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly achieve in an age."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love

"Love does not dominate; it cultivates."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love

"The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through eternity."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love

"When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love

More Contentment Quotes

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"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."

- Epictetus

Contentment

"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday."

- A. A. Milne

Contentment

"Small is not just a stepping stone. Small is a great destination itself."

- Jason Fried

Contentment

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing."

Contentment

"As for you, you will join your ancestors in peace and be buried after a good long life."

Contentment