Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn't every nationhave its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?
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I do not now begin, - I still adore Her whom I early cherish'd in my breast; Then once again with prudence dispossess'd, And to whose heart I'm driven back once more. The love of Petrarch, that all-glorious love, Was unrequited, and, alas, full sad.
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I do not speak of what I cannot praise.
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To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign.
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Man's restlessness makes him strive.
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Without haste! without rest! Bind the motto to thy breast! Bear it with thee as a spell; Storm or sunshine, guard it well.
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Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.
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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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If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite.
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Nothing is more odious than the majority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and submissive weaklings, and a mass of men who trot after them without thinking, or knowing their own minds.
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Hatred is partial, but love is still more so.
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One never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going.
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Rash, inexperienced youth holds itself a chosen instrument, and allows itself unbounded license.
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The greatest joy of a thinking man is to have searched the explored and to quietly revere the unexplored.
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The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.
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He who is firm and resolute in will molds the world to himself.
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The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.
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As long as you don't practice it, this dying and becoming, You are only a dreary guest on this dark earth.
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Painting predicates what man wants to see, and what man ought to see, not what he ordinarily sees.
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The new vulcanism is really a daring attempt to connect the present, incomprehensible world to a past, unknown one.
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Character calls forth character.
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Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not to-day; Still forward press, nor never tire! The possible, with steadfast trust, Resolve should be by the forelock grasp. Then she will ne'er let go her clasp, And labors on, because she must.
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National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten thearrival of that age.
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If we are out of synch with ourselves, everything is out of synch for us.