Goethe Quotes

The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.

Modern poets mix too much water with their ink. [Ger., Neuere Poeten thun viel Wasser in die Tinte.]

A stated truth loses its grace, but a repeated error appears insipid and ridiculous.

But the valid issue is the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.

Thus I reel from desire to fulfillment and in fulfillment languish for desire.

A true German can't stand the French, Yet willingly he drinks their wines.

It is better to be doing the most insignificant thing than to reckon even a half-hour insignificant.

Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.

The whole art of living consists in giving up existence in order to exist.

It is better for you to suffer an injustice than for the world to be without law. Therefore, let everyone submit to the law.

It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

Only the soul that loves is happy

One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.

All professional men are handicapped by not being allowed to ignore things which are useless.

The words you've bandied are sufficient; 'Tis deeds that I prefer to see. [Ger., Der Worte sind genug gewechselt, Lasst mich auch endlich Thaten sehn.]

The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.

Everything factual is, in a sense, theory. The blue of the sky exhibits the basic laws of chromatics. There is no sense in looking for something behind phenomena: they are theory.

I have learned much from disease which life could have never taught me anywhere else.

Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.

The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind.

The safest thing is always to try to convert everything that is in us and around us into action; let the others talk and argue about it as they please.

Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.

The best pleasures of this world are not quite true.

What we don't understand we don't possess.

Art is in itself noble; that is why the artist has no fear of what is common. This, indeed, is already ennobled when he takes it up.

It is unpleasant to miss even the most trifling thing to which we have been accustomed.

To venture an opinion is like moving a piece at chess: it may be taken, but it forms the beginning of a game that is won.

For to give is the business of the rich. [Lat., Denn Geben ist Sache des Reichen.]

And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]

The Evil One has left, the evil ones remain. [Ger., Den Bosen sind sie los, die Bosen sind geblieben.]

Man, be he who he may, experiences a last piece of good fortune and a last day. [Ger., Der Mensch erfahrt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Gluck und einen letzten Tag.]

Limitation of aims is the mother of wisdom and the secret of achievement.

The experiences show us just as we are; they make us see our own defects.

Each traveler should know what he has to see, and what properly belongs to him, on a journey.

No one should be rich except those who understand it.

I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.

Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.

You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.

It is one of Heaven's best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one's arms.

The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.

The bad thing is that thinking about thought doesn't help at all; one has to have it from nature so that the good ideas appear before us like free children of God calling to us: Here we are.

I curse all negative purism that tells me not to use a word from another language that either expresses something that my own language cannot or does that in a more delicate manner.

In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.

What you desire when young, you have in abundance when old.

To become aware in time when young of the advantages of age; to maintain the advantages of youth in old age: both are pure fortune.

If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.

There is nothing outside of us that is not at the same time in us, and as the external world has its colors the eye, too, has colors.

All one needs to do is declare oneself free and one will immediately feel dependent. If you dare to declare yourself dependent, you feel independent.

Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.