Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Zwey Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust.
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Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.
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Nicht vor Irrthum zu bewahren, ist die Pflicht des Menschen erziehers; sondern den Irrenden zu leiten, ja ihn seinen Irrthum aus vollen Bechern ausschlürfen zu lassen, das ist Weisheit der Lehrer. Wer seinen Irrthum nur kostet, hält lange damit Haus; er freuet sich dessen als eines seltenen Glücks; aber wer ihn ganz erschöpft, der muß ihn kennenlernen.
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Everything that we encounter leaves traces behind. Everything contributes imperceptibly to our education.
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Ich bedauere die Menschen, welche von der Vergänglichkeit der Dinge viel Wesens machen und sich in Betrachtung irdischer Nichtigkeit verlieren. Sind wir ja eben deßhalb da, um das Vergängliche unvergänglich zu machen; das kann ja nur dadurch geschehen, wenn man beides zu schätzen weiß.
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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.
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Ein unnütz Leben ist ein früher Tod...
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Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious.
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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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Young Schopenhauer, a zealous and thorough-going Kantian, tried to explain that light would cease to exist along with the seeing eye. 'What!' he said, according to Schopenhauer's own report, 'looking at him with his Jove-like eyes,'-'You should rather say that you would not exist if the light could not see you?'
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The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
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Much there is I can stand, and most things not easy to suffer I bear with quiet resolve, just as a god commands it. Only a few I find as repugnant as snakes and poison - These four: tobacco smoke, bedbugs, garlic, and †.
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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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Let the noble man Be generous and good, Tirelessly achieving What is just and useful: Let him be a model For those beings whom he surmises.
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Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.
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Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient.
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The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.
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A true German can't stand the French, Yet willingly he drinks their wines.
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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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Der umgang mit frauen ist das element guter sitten.
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Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
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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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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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A violet on the meadow grew, That no one saw, that no one knew, It was a modest flower. A shepherdess pass'd by that way. Light footed, pretty and so gay; That way she came, Softly warbling forth her lay.