Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Love does not dominate it cultivates.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Those who have never seen themselves surrounded on all sides by the sea can never possess an idea of the world, and of their relation to it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What's foreign one can't always keep quite clear of,For good things, oft, are not so near;A German can't endure the French to see or hear of,Yet drinks their wines with hearty cheer.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One who has passed the thirtieth yearalready is as good as dead--it would be best to kill you off by then.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is no higher or purer pleasure than to sit with closed eyes and hear a naturally expressive voice recite... a play of Shakespeare's.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavour to efface them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Here too it’s masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind.I grasped a lovely masked procession,And caught things from a horror show…I’d gladly settle for a false impression,If it would last a little longer, though.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What you inherit from your fathermust first be earned before it's yours.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When he comes to the doorhe always looks mocking and half-way angry.You can see he has sympathy for nothing.It's written on his foreheadthat he can love no one.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Being full of mischief, they love to listen;they gladly obey, for they like to betray you,pretending to be sent from Heaven,and lisping like angels, while they lie.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Glib tongues frill up their hash of knowledgefor mankind in polished speechesthat are no more than vaporous windsrustling the fallen leaves in autumn.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Men grieve [Mephistopheles] so with the days of their lamenting, [he] even hate[s] to plague them with [his] torments.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
All that is transitory is but a metaphor.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[Alexander von] Humboldt showers us with true treasures.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When I say to the Moment flying;'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!'Then bind me in thy bonds undying,And my final ruin I will bear!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
National hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My father, my father, and dost thou not hearThe 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
On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There you have it! - How they anticipate my wishes, how they grant friendship's little attentions, which are worth a thousand times more than breathtaking presents that merely prove the giver's vanity and humiliate us.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He'd have improved if you'd not givenHim a mere glimmer of the light in heaven;He calls it Reason, and it has only increasedHis power to be beastlier than a beast.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I've often heard it said, a preacherMight learn, with a comedian for a teacher.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It's in the anomalies that nature reveals its secrets.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Divide and rule, the politician cries;Unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I'm fairly fond of boys, but my preference is for girls; When I have enough of a girl, she serves me still as a boy.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us mastery over ourselves is destructive.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
15"General ideas and great conceit are always a fair way to bring about terrible misfortune.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There occurs the beautiful feeling that only humanity together is the true human being, and that the individual can be cheerful and happy only if he has the courage to feel himself in the Whole.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A clever man commits no minor blunders.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
As usual, I shall tell my story badly; and you, as usual, will think me extravagant.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Gracious Providence, to whom I owe all my powers, why didst thou not withhold some of those blessings I possess, and substitute in their place a feeling of self-confidence and contentment?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is strong shadow where there is much light.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everything transitory is but an image.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. ... In the real world, all rests on perseverance.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Church has an excellent appetite. She has swallowed whole countries and the questionHas never risen of indigestion. Only the Church . . . can take Ill-gotten goods without stomach-ache!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The things I know, every man can know, but, oh, my heart is mine alone!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Solitude is precious balm to my heart in these paradistic parts.
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
Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time, are either psychopaths or mountebanks.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I will say nothing against the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I will say nothing... against the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Grant me one hour on love’s most sacred shoresTo clasp the bosom that my soul adores,Lie heart to heart and merge my soul with yours.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Classicism is health, romanticisim is sickness.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In this world one is seldom reduced to make a selection between two alternatives. There are as many varieties of conduct and opinion as there are turns of feature between an aquiline nose and a flat one.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Each one's no longer consciousOf 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
The world turns gray, the air grows cool, the fog blows in. Only at evening can you really value home.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Des Menschen Kraft, im Dichter offenbartThe human power is revealed by poetIl potere dell'umanità si rivela nel poeta
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and -- if at all possible -- speak a few sensible words.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
schade dass die Natur nur einen Mensch aus dir schuf / denn zum wurdigen Mann war und zum Schelmen der Stoff" (loose translation: nature, alas, made only one being out of you although there was material for a good man & a rogue)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they find to laugh at.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Naturalists tell of a noble race of horses that instinctively open a vein with their teeth, when heated and exhausted by a long course, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein, to procure for myself everlasting liberty. Cento volte ho impugnato una lama per conficcarmela nel cuore. Si dice di una nobile razza i cavalli,che quando si sentono accaldati e affaticati, si aprono istintivamente una vena, per respirare più liberamente. Spesso anche io vorrei aprirmi una vena che mi desse libertà eterna.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe