Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Yet here I stand poor fool what more, not one wit wiser than before.
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If I say to the moment: 'Stay now! You are so beautiful'!
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One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands so seldom of others the impossible, but demands just that of the portraitists.
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Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action.
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Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.
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Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man.
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The older we grow, the greater become the ordeals.
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Every idea appears at first as a strange visitor, and when it begins to be realized, it is hardly distinguishable from fantasy.
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It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.
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If all these devils really exist it proves there must be angels, too.
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To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.
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When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
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All professional men are handicapped by not being allowed to ignore things which are useless.
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Doubt grows with knowledge.
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What am I then...? Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished by countless different individuals, by innocent and wise ones, people of intelligence and dunces. Childhood, maturity and old age all have brought me their thoughts....their perspectives on life. I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name Goethe.
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Mystery is truth's dancing partner.
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To have more, you must first be more.
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We don't get to know anything but what we love.
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To every one Nature appears in a form of his own. She hides herself in a thousand names and terms, and is always the same.
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Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.
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Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent.
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What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves. [Ger., Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige die uns lehrt uns selbst zu regieren.]
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Art is constitutive-the artist determines beauty. He does not take it over.
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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.