Death Goethe Quotes & Sayings

The soul-stirring image of death is no bugbear to the sage, and is looked on without despair by the pious. It teaches the former to live, and it strengthens the hopes of the latter in salvation in the midst of distress. Death is new life to both. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A human being needs only a small plot of ground on which to be happy, and even less to lie beneath. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

An unused life is an early death. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When we see the many grave-stones which have fallen in, which have been defaced by the footsteps of the congregation, which lie buried under the ruins of the churches, that have themselves crumbled together over them; we may fancy the life after death to be as a second life, into which man enters in the figure, or the picture or the inscription, and lives longer there than when he was really alive. But this figure also, this second existence, dies out too, sooner or later. Time will not allow himself to be cheated of his rights with the monuments of men or with themselves. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A useless life is an early death.
[Ger., Ein unnutz Leben ist ein fruher Tod.] — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If ever I to the moment shall say:
Beautiful moment, do not pass away!
Then you may forge your chains to bind me,
Then I will put my life behind me,
Then let them hear my death-knell toll,
Then from your labours you'll be free,
The clock may stop, the clock-hands fall,
And time come to an end for me! — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The sun had, in the meanwhile, sunk behind the Ettersberg. We felt in the wood the chill of the evening, and drove all the quicker to Wiemar, and to Goethe's house. Goethe urged me to go in with him for a while, and I did so. He was in an extremely engaging mood. He talked a great deal about his theory of colors, and of his obstinate opponents; remarking that he was sure that he had done something in this science. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He is the happiest man who can see the connection between the end and the beginning of life. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

As long as you are not aware of the continual law of Die and Be Again, you are merely a vague guest on a dark Earth. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If we could do away with death, we wouldn't object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The dance is the most universal of the arts, since, as Goethe justly said, it could destroy all the fine arts. It is an expression of all the emotions of the spirit, from the lowest to the highest. It accompanies and stimulates all the processes of life, from hunting and farming to war and fertility, from love to death. It enables, in turn other arts to come into being: music, song, drama. Despite all their riches, the dance is no formless complex, but a simple unity. — Gerard Van Der Leeuw

You remember what Goethe said in the moment of his death [ ... ] 'More light.' Death opens up the way to more light, and carries us to those regions where we stand face to face with eternal Beauty and Truth. I remember the time when I read Goethe's poems with you, and I hope you also remember those happy days when we were so near to each other spiritually speaking.
Iqbals Briefwechsel mit Emma Wegenast (S. 45, Iqbal and Goethe, Christina Oesterheld) — Muhammad Iqbal

Death is Nature's expert advice to get plenty of Life. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A useless life is an early death — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Weary of liberty, he suffered himself to be saddled and bridled, and was ridden to death for his pains. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The thought of death leaves me in perfect peace, for I have a firm conviction that our spirit is a being of indestructible nature; it works on from eternity to eternity, it is like the sun, which though it seems to set to our mortal eyes, does not really set, but shines on perpetually. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility and poverty, and, despite mockery and disgrace, wretchedness, suffering, and death, as things divine. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

[Wagner] But the world, the hearts and minds of humankind,
Are subjects all men want to know about.
[Faust] What they call knowing, that I do not doubt.
But who dares speak his honest mind?
The few who ever did know anything
And we're such fools they gave their hearts free rein
And showed the mob what they had felt and seen,
Death on the cross they got or death by burning. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I see no end to my misery but the grave. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The spectacle of Nature is always new, for she is always renewing the spectators. Life is her most exquisite invention; and death is her expert contrivance to get plenty of life. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.
In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.
Now you are no longer caught
in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher love-making
sweeps you upward.
Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced
this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest
on the dark earth. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

To me the external existence of my soul is proved from my idea of activity. If I work incessantly until my death, nature will give me another form of existence when the present can no longer sustain my spirit. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which put Socrates to death by poison, the age which burnt Huss. The ages have always remained alike. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Wild dreams torment me as I lie. And though a god lives in my heart, though all my power waken at his word, though he can move my every inmost part - yet nothing in the outer world is stirred. thus by existence tortured and oppressed I crave for death, I long for rest. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,
My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Man needs only a small patch of earth for his pleasures, and a smaller one still to rest beneath. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If society gives up the right to impose the death penalty, then self-help will appear again and personal vendettas will be around the corner. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

For five hundred years after Walther's death - until Goethe - no German lyric poet was his equal. — Walther Von Der Vogelweide

If you had swum across the furthest ocean
And seen the vastness of infinity
Though dread of death might seize you, you'd still see
The rolling waves in never-ceasing motion
You'd still see something: Schools of dolphins swimming
Across the green and placid waters, skimming
The clouds, the sun and the moon, stars overhead -
You will see nothing in that void all round
You will not hear your footsteps where you tread
Beneath your feet, you'll feel no solid ground — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

My father, my father, and dost thou not hear
The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?
'Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;
Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe