Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.
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As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
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God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.
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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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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.
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Water its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose.
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Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
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To live as one likes is plebian the noble man aspires to order and law.
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There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.
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The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.
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Not all that is presented to us as history has really happened; and what really happened did not actually happen the way it is presented to us; moreover, what really happened is only a small part of all that happened. Everything in history remains uncertain, the largest events as well as the smallest occurrence.
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We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.
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Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
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The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no longer judged by their contemporaries.
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Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.
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Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint.
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Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!
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With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.
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A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.
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Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.
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How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!
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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.
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Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.
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The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.