Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The effects of good music are not just because it's new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it.
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With little art, clear wit and sense Suggest their own delivery.
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I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.
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Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.
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Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion.
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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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In der Kunst ist das Beste gut genug.
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If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions.
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We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.
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'No matter how far our spiritual culture may continue to progress, no matter how much the natural sciences may grow, becoming ever more profound and more inclusive, no matter how much the human spirit may will to expand, that human spirit will never escape from the majesty and ethical sublimity of Christianity, as it shimmers and shines in the Gospels.'
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Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
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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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Der umgang mit frauen ist das element guter sitten.
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Sceptics are yet the most credulous.
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The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging.
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The artist who is not also a craftsman is no good; but, alas, most of our artists are nothing else.
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A true German can't stand the French, Yet willingly he drinks their wines.
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The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty, Even though this world is forever altering its values.
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The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannotbe explored.
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I'm gazing at church and palace, ruin and column,Like a serious man making sensible use of a journey,But soon it will happen, and all will be one vast temple,Love's temple, receiving its new initiate.Though you're a whole world, Rome, still, without Love,The world isn't the world, and Rome can't be Rome.
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Association with women is the basis of good manners.
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I can promise to be sincere, but I cannot promise to be impartial.
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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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Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.