Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

I look upon all four Gospels as thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity proceeding from Jesus Christ.

Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never spent the darksome hours Weeping, and watching for the morrow,- He knows you not, ye heavenly Powers.

You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.

Out of moderation a pure happiness springs.

Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.

Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.

Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.

Yet he who grasps the moment's gift, He is the proper man.

What in us the women leave uncultivated, children cultivate when we retain them near us.

My peace is gone, my heart is heavy. [Ger., Meine Ruh ist hin, Mein Herz ist schwer.]

Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease. [Ger., Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.]

A wounded heart can with difficulty be cured. [Ger., Doch ein gekranktes Herz erholt sich schwer.]

When I err every one can see it, but not when I lie. [Ger., Wenn ich irre kann es jeder bemerken; wenn ich luge, nicht.]

A well-bred carriage is difficult to imitate; for in strictness it is negative, and it implies a long-continued previous training.

The trouble is small, the fun is great. [Ger., Die Muh'ist klein, der Spass ist gross.]

If thou wouldst hear what seemly is and fit, inquire of noble woman; they can tell, who in life's common usage hold their place by graceful deed and aptly chosen word.

Smoothly and lightly the golden seed by the furrow is covered.

The mortal race is far too weak not to grow dizzy on unwonted brights. [Ger., Das sterbliche Geschlecht ist viel zu schwach In ungewohnter Hohe nicht zu schwindeln.]

Oh, happy he who still hopes he can emerge from Error's boundless sea! - Faust.

We learn to treasure what is above this earth; we long for revelation, which nowhere burns more purely and more beautifully than in the New Testament.

Our hands we open of our own free will, and the good flies, which we can never recall.

Man believes himself always greater than he is, and is esteemed less than he is worth.

No wonder we are all more or less pleased with mediocrity, since it leaves us at rest, and gives the same comfortable feeling as when one associates with his equals.

The miller imagines that the corn grows only to make his mill turn.

The march of intellect, which licks all the world into shape, has even reached the devil.

Lamps make oil-spots and candles need snuffing; it is only the light of heaven that shines pure and leaves no stain.

Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.

The little that is completed, vanishes from the sight of one who looks forward to what is still to do.

Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.

Let there be truth between us.

Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.

Still this planet's soil for noble deeds grants scope abounding.

What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit; Whats genuine, shall posterity inherit.

Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him! [Ger., Du bist noch nicht der Mann den Teufel festzuhalten.

Power is neither male nor female.

I hate every violent overthrow, because as much is destroyed as is gained by it.

Modern poets add a lot of water to their ink.

What you have inherited from your forefathers, it takes work to make it your own.

If I work incessantly to the last, nature owes me another form of existence when the present one collapses.

I always had an aversion to your apostles of freedom; each but sought for himself freedom to do what he liked.

Over the trackless past, somewhere, Lie the lost days of our tropic youth, Only regained by faith and prayer, Only recalled by prayer and plaint, Each lost day has its patron saint!

Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe they are converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced the majority allow themselves to be persuaded.

If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be right with the whole.

Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it.

nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart.

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.

Tolerance should really be only a temporary attitude; it must lead to recognition. To tolerate means to offend.

We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.

How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!