Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries.
-
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.
-
Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.
-
The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannotbe explored.
-
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.
-
Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.
-
This is the true measure of love, When we believe that we alone can love, That no one could ever have loved so before us, And that no one will ever love in the same way after us.
-
Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord preferred to live with whores and sinners, seeing I go in for that myself.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Only mankind Can do the impossible: He can distinguish, He chooses and judges, He can give permanence To the moment.
-
It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles.
-
The most difficult thing is what is thought to be the simplest; to really see the things which are before your eyes.
-
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
-
Collectors are happy people.
-
Das Klassische nenne ich das Gesunde und das Romantische das Kranke.
-
Art is a mediator of the unspeakable.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I can promise to be sincere, but I cannot promise to be impartial.
-
The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
-
Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
-
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.