Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.

The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.

It is opposition that makes us productive.

But one must know where one stands, and where the others wish to go.

Idea and experience will never coincide in the center; only through art and action are they united.

What is fruitful alone is true.

One can't dull a project better than by discussing it repeatedly.

Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.

The philosophers must station themselves in the middle.

The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever.

If it is the greatest truth that you seek, the plants can direct you.

Not art and science only, but patience will be required for the work.

Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.

The present is a powerful deity. [Ger., Die Gegenwart ist eine machtige Gottin.]

Every form correctly seen is beautiful

Where I cannot be moral, my power is gone.

Names are but noise and smoke, Obscuring heavenly light.

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.