Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The trouble is small, the fun is great.
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Such is the frailty of man that even where he makes the truest and most forcible impression in the memory, in the heart of his beloved, there also he must perish.
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One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.
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Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves.
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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.
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When you lose interest in anything, you also lose the memory for it.
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Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
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The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.
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Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity.
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Method will teach you to win time.
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The day is for mistake and error, sequence of time for success and carrying out. The one who anticipates is master of the day.
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We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.
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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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God help us -- for art is long, and life so short.
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The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.
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All our knowledge is symbolic.
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None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
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The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
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It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself.
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Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
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Always to distrust is an error, as well as always to trust.
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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.
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Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.
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When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.