Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.
Famous Quotes By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
All that is alive tends toward color, individuality, specificity, effectiveness and opacity. All that is done with life inclines toward knowledge, abstraction, generality transfiguration and transparency. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Neither a work of nature nor one of art we get to know when they have been finished; we must surprise them in the process of beingcreated so as to understand them to some degree. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions, means ruiningtheir craft. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Necessity is cruel, but it is the only test of inward strength. Every fool may live according to his own likings. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
A good man, through obscurest aspirations Has still an instinct of the one true way. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is, but that which we hope for. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
How happy I am that my heart can feel the simple, harmless bliss of the person who brings to his table a cabbage he has grown himself, not just the cabbage alone but all the good days, the beautiful morning he planted it, the lovely evenings he watered it, and as he had his joy in its advancing growth, he enjoys it all again in the one moment. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Some people spend the day in complaining of a headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Glib tongues frill up their hash of knowledge
for mankind in polished speeches
that are no more than vaporous winds
rustling the fallen leaves in autumn. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if possible, speak a few reasonable words — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Chess is the touchstone of intellect. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
A joy shared is a joy doubled. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who made mankind and knows how to round off the corners. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
There are three classes of readers; some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged. Its numbers are very small. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
PATER SERAPHICUS. Higher rise, still higher, growing Stronger imperceptibly, Near the Divine Presence gaining A more perfect purity! What is it the spirit thrives on, What fills the ethereal space? Endless love whose revelation Blitheness brings, eternal bliss. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
It is working within limits that the craftsman reveals himself. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
What you have as heritage,
Take now as task;
For thus you will make it your own. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Gray is the color of all theory — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
It is with art as with love: How can a man of the world,with all his distractions, keep the inwardness which an artist must possess if he hopes to attain perfection? That inwardness which the spectator must share if he is to understand the work as the artist wishes and hopes ... Believe me, talents are like virtues; either you must love them for their own sake or renounce them altogether. And they are only recognized and rewarded when we have practised them in secret, like a dangerous mystery. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Our mistakes and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have accomplished and attained. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
What we don't understand we don't possess. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I hope we shall get on together, you and I;
I've come to cheer you up - That's why
I'm dressed up like an aristocrat
In a fine red coat with golden stitches,
A stiff silk cape on top of that,
A long sharp dagger in my breeches,
And a cockerel's feather in my hat.
Take my advice - if I were you,
I'd get an outfit like this too;
Then you'd be well equipped to see
Just how exciting life can be. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The summit charms us, the steps to it do not; with the heights before our eyes, we like to linger in the plain. It is only a part of art that can be taught; but the artist needs the whole. He who is only half instructed speaks much and is always wrong; who knows it wholly is content with acting and speaks seldom or late. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
At the end of life thoughts hitherto impossible come to the collected mind, like good spirits which let themselves down from the shining heights of the past. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
However often we turn to it [the Koran] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence ... Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime - Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Conscience is the virtue of observers and not of agents of action. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Every solution of a problem is a new problem. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Each one's no longer conscious
Of the high wall, or the rest:
Since the one enduring fortress,
Is the soldier's iron breast.
If you'd live unconquered,
Quickly arm, and fight the real foe:
Every wife an Amazon bred,
And every child a hero. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Our plans and designs should be so perfect in truth and beauty, that in touching them the world could only mar. We should thus have the advantage of setting right what is wrong, and restoring what is destroyed. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
We all of us live upon the past, and through the past we are destroyed. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Stood I, O Nature! man alone in thee, Then were it worth one's while a man to be. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
And do I ask, wherefore my heart
Falters, oppressed with unknown needs?
Why some inexplicable smart
All movement of my life impedes?
Alas! in living Nature's stead,
Where God His human creature set,
In smoke and mould the fleshless dead
And bones of beasts surround me yet! — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Of the truly creative no one is ever master; it must be left to go its own way. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
All our knowledge is symbolic. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
We must note the curious fact that people are not content with what is simple to understand, but go straight for the more complex problems which they will perhaps never grasp. What is simple to grasp is quite usable and useful, and can keep us occupied for a whole lifetime if it satisfies and stimulates us. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her! — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I was oppressed with the sensations I then felt; I sunk under the weight of them. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
No skill or art is needed to grow old; the trick is to endure it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Let it go out, the sun's fire, If light dawns inside our souls, In our own hearts we'll discover What the outer world withholds. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
We are not all equal, nor can we be so. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I treat my heart like a sick child and gratify its every fancy. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Every second is of infinite value. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Children, like dogs, have so sharp and fine a scent that they detect and hunt out everything
the bad before all the rest. They also know well enough how this or that friend stands with their parents; and as they practice no dissimulation whatever, they serve as excellent barometers by which to observe the degree of favor or disfavor at which we stand with their parents. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Must it be, that what makes for a man's happiness becomes the source for his misery? — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I am part of the part that once was everything,
Part of the darkness which gave birth to light ...
Mephistopheles, from Faust. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
But he is so exceedingly accurate, that, if he only fancies he has said a word too precipitate, or too general, or only half true, he never ceases to qualify, to modify, and extenuate, till at last he appears to have said nothing at all. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
We can accept the unpleasant more readily than we can the inconsequential. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The universal subjugator, the commonplace. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Alas! You have shattered the beautiful world with a brazen fist; It falls, it is scattered - By a demigod destroyed. We are trailing the ruins into the void and wailing over a beauty undone and ended. Earth's mighty son, more splendid rebuild it, you that are strong, build it again within! And begin a new life, a new way, lucid and gay, and play new songs. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness? — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Fairytale: presents impossible events under possible or almost impossible conditions as though they were possible. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Willing is not enough, we must do. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
They make life unnecessarily difficult for themselves by looking for deep thoughts and ideas everywhere and putting them into everything. just have the courage to
give yourself up to first impressions..don't think all the time that
everything must be pointless if it lacks an abstract thought or idea — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Enthusiasm is of the greatest value, so long as we are not carried away by it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Nothing is so atrocious as fancy without taste. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I nothing had, and yet enough for youth
Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion,
O, give me back my youth again! — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Life is too short to drink bad wine. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Profoundness, genius, spontaneity, merit, nobility, ingenuity, voice propriety, feeling, discernment, sensibility, good taste, great tone, rightness, courtliness, vivacity, boldness, style, freshness, harmony, perfection, imagination, purity, correctness. The greatest writer of all times. God's most astonishing creation. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I see no end to my misery but the grave. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The best benefit we derive from history is the enthusiasm it excites. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Whatever we think out, whatever we take in hand to do, should be perfectly and finally finished, that the world, if it must alter, will only have to spoil it; we have then nothing to do but unite the severed, to recollect and restore the dismembered. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent! — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Accepting good advice means nothing other than to strengthen one's own ability. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Things unused burden and beset. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
If a man sets out to study all the laws, he will have no time left to transgress them. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe