Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
By the artist's seizing any one object from nature, that object no longer is part of nature. One can go so far as to say that theartist creates the object in that very moment by emphasizing its significant, characteristic, and interesting aspects or, rather, by adding the higher values.
-
Es gibt kein äußeres Zeichen der Höflichkeit, das nicht einen tiefen sittlichen Grund hätte. Die rechte Erziehung wäre, welche dieses Zeichen und den Grund zugleich überlieferte.
-
Microscopes and telescopes really confuse our minds.
-
Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.
-
Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.
-
Die Kunst an und für sich selbst ist edel; deßhalb fürchtet sich der Künstler nicht vor dem Gemeinen. Ja indem er es aufnimmt, ist es schon geadelt, und so sehen wir die größten Künstler mit Kühnheit ihr Majestätsrecht ausüben.
-
The nude is the perfect expression of freedom. Freedom to be.
-
Doubt can only be removed by action.
-
The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.
-
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?
-
Zwey Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust.
-
The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.
-
There is no outward sign of true courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation.
-
Let us seek to fathom those things that are fathomable and reserve those things which are unfathomable for reverence in quietude.
-
No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.
-
I curse all negative purism that tells me not to use a word from another language that either expresses something that my own language cannot or does that in a more delicate manner.
-
Great endowments often announce themselves in youth in the form of singularity and awkwardness.
-
Do not, I beg you, look for anything behind phenomena. They are themselves their own lesson.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Piety is not an end but a means to attain by the greatest peace of mind the highest degree of culture.
-
All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.
-
Belief is not the beginning of knowledge - it is the end.