Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Happy the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers.
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The bad thing is that thinking about thought doesn't help at all; one has to have it from nature so that the good ideas appear before us like free children of God calling to us: Here we are.
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Nature! We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secret. We constantly act upon her, and yet have no power over her. Variant: NATURE! We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her.
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A distracted existence leads us to no goal.
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Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.
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How to please the public - that's the test, But nowadays I find I'm in a fix; I know they're not accustomed to the best, But they've all read so much they know the tricks. How can we give then something fresh and new That's serious, but entertaining too?
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It used to happen, and still happens, to me to take no pleasure in a work of art at the first sight of it, because it is too much for me; but if I suspect any merit in it, I try to get at it; and then I never fail to make the most gratifying discoveries--to find new qualities in the work itself and new faculties in myself.
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The human mind will not be confined to any limits.
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Man must strive, and striving he must err.
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There's nothing clever that hasn't been thought of before - you've just got to try to think it all over again.
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The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth. [Ger., Das erste und letzte, was vom Genie gefordert wird, ist Wahreits-Liebe.]
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Do not, I beg you, look for anything behind phenomena. They are themselves their own lesson.
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In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.
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Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.
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It is delivery that makes the orators success.
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To make a young couple love each other, it is only necessary to oppose and separate them.
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Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.
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Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet it is the same with this art as with all others: only the capacity for it is innate; the art itself must be learned and painstakingly practiced.
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A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him...but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.
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Neuere Poeten tun viel Wasser in die Tinte.
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Ein unnütz Leben ist ein früher Tod...
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There is nothing new on earth For a person who lives long and experiences much. In my years of youthful wandering I have seen crystallized people.
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The society of women is the element of good manners.
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Our senses don't deceive us: our judgment does.