Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.
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Der umgang mit frauen ist das element guter sitten.
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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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To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities.
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Doubt can only be removed by action.
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As beauteous is the world, and many a joy Floats through its wide dominion. But, alas, When we would seize the winged good, it flies.
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Do not, I beg you, look for anything behind phenomena. They are themselves their own lesson.
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All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.
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And what does really matter? That is easy: thinking and doing, doing and thinking--and these are the sum of all wisdom. . . . Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out.
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Microscopes and telescopes really confuse our minds.
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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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To make a young couple love each other, it is only necessary to oppose and separate them.
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A distracted existence leads us to no goal.
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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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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 mark of highest originality lies in the ability to develop a familiar idea so fruitfully that it would seem no one else would ever have discovered so much to be hidden in it.
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The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.
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The new vulcanism is really a daring attempt to connect the present, incomprehensible world to a past, unknown one.
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Let us seek to fathom those things that are fathomable and reserve those things which are unfathomable for reverence in quietude.
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O'er all the hilltopsIs quiet now,In all the treetopsHearest thouHardly a breath;The birds are asleep in the trees:Wait; soon like theseThou too shalt rest.
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Man must strive, and striving he must err.
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You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.
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Woman is mistress of the art of completely imbittering the life of the person on whom she depends.
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I am the Spirit that denies.