Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
Common sense is the genius of humanity.
-
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
-
All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one up to now has measured up to and, strictly considered, no one should. With all their study and effort, people are directed to what is outside, to the world about them, and they are kept busy coming to know this and to master it to the extent that their purposes require. . . . How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. And what is your duty? Whatever the day calls for.
-
Nature's crown is Love. Only through Love can we come near her. She puts gulfs between all things, and all things strive to be interfused. She isolates everything, that she may draw everything together. With a few draughts from the cup of Love she repays for a life full of trouble.
-
Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.
-
Who wants to understand the poemMust go to the land of poetry;Who wishes to understand the poetMust go to the poet's land.
-
People say, "Artist, study nature!" But it is no small matter to develop what is noble out of what is common, beauty out of what lacks form.
-
Say what you will of fortitude, but show me the man who can patiently endure the laughter of fools when they have obtained an advantage over him. 'Tis only when their nonsense is without foundation that one can suffer it without complaint.
-
Sing it not in mournful numbers.
-
Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.
-
Und doch sehr oft, wenn wir uns von dem Beabsichtigten für ewig getrennt sehen, haben wir schon auf unserm Wege irgend ein anderes Wünschenswerthe gefunden, etwas uns Gemäßes, mit dem uns zu begnügen wir eigentlich geboren sind.
-
Knowst thou the land where the lemon trees bloom,Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom,Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows,And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose?
-
I had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it.
-
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
-
Es gibt Fälle, ... wo jeder Trost niederträchtig und Verzweiflung Pflicht ist.
-
The eternal feminine draws us on high.
-
The first and last thing demanded of genius is love of truth.
-
The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy.
-
One needs only to get old to become milder; I don't see anyone make a mistake I hadn't also made.
-
Time is my estate: to Time I'm heir.
-
Wind is the loving Wooer of waters; Wind blends together Billows all-foaming. Spirit of man, Thou art like unto water! Fortune of man, Thou art like unto wind!
-
The rainbow mirrors human aims and action. Think, and more clearly wilt thou grasp it, seeing Life is but light in many-hued reflection.
-
Everything factual is, in a sense, theory. The blue of the sky exhibits the basic laws of chromatics. There is no sense in looking for something behind phenomena: they are theory.
-
Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden. Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken.