Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.
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The philosophers must station themselves in the middle.
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The master proves himselin recognizing his limitations.
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The coward only threatens when he is safe.
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Thus I reel from desire to fulfillment and in fulfillment languish for desire.
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Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.
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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 have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.
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Every great idea exerts, on first appearing, a tyrannical influence: Hence, the advantages it brings are turned all too soon into disadvantages.
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Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.
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We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.
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And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.
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The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.
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Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
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Give me those days with heart in riot, The depths of bliss that touched on pain, The force of hate, and love's disquiet- Ah, give me back my youth again!
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If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
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The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.
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Translators are like busy match-makers: they sing the praises of some half-veiled beauty, and extol her charms, and arouse an irresistible longing for the original.
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Passions are defects or virtues in the highest power.
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Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.
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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.
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I let everyone follow his own bent, that I may be free to follow mine.
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I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live.
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It is working within limits that the craftsman reveals himself.