Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
Art rests on a kind of religious sense, on a deep, steadfast earnestness; and on this account it unites so readily with religion.
-
One says a lot in vain, refusing;The other mainly hears the 'No.'
-
Man's restlessness makes him strive.
-
Character calls forth character.
-
There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it.
-
Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.
-
A great artist... must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.
-
Art will always be art.
-
The coward only threatens when he is safe.
-
If we could do away with death, we wouldn't object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time.
-
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
-
The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.
-
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?
-
Everything in science depends on what one calls an aperch, on becoming aware of what is at the bottom of the phenomena. Such becoming aware is infinitely fertile.
-
The wealth that cannot be administered is a burden.
-
People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.
-
Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.
-
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
-
People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.
-
To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.
-
One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.
-
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.
-
When translating one must proceed up to the intranslatable; only then one becomes aware of the foreign nation and the foreign tongue.
-
The master proves himselin recognizing his limitations.