Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

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.

If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the wholeworld will be blind and toothless.

Superstition belongs to the essence of mankind and takes refuge, when one thinks one has suppressed it completely, in the strangest nooks and crannies; once it is safely ensconced there, it suddenly reappears.

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

Colors are light's suffering and joy

The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.

I laugh at my heart, and do its will

If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite.

For I have been a man, and that means to have been a fighter.

A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.

The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.

A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

It is a great pleasure to transport one's-self into the spirit of the times; to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it.

Properly speaking, we learn from those books only that we cannot judge. The author of a book that I am competent to criticise would have to learn from me.

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

Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

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

From desire I plunge to its fulfilment, where I long once more for desire.

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

But who will dare to speak the truth out clear? The few who anything of truth have learned, And foolishly did not keep truth concealed, Their thoughts and visions to the common herd revealed, Since time began we've crucified and burned

He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.

We amuse ourselves painting our prison-walls with bright figures and brilliant landscapes.

Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language.

However often we turn to it [the Koran] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence. . . . Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime - Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence.

Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in his own peculiar way.

The artist has a twofold relation to nature; he is at once her master and her slave.

Our modern wars make many unhappy while they last and none happy when they are over.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

So dear night the half of life is, And the fairest half indeed.

Whatever is the object of a saint's hope is the subject of his prayer.

One mind is enough for a thousand hands.

No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.

To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us.

It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles.

I nothing had, and yet enough for youth--Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion,--O, give me back my youth again!

I examine my own being, and find there a world, but a world rather of imagination and dim desires, than of distinctness and living power. Then everything swims before my senses, and I smile and dream while pursuing my way through the world.

I call architecture frozen music.

The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging.

Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.

What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness?

Alas, I have studied philosophy, the law as well as medicine, and to my sorrow, theology; studied them well with ardent zeal, yet here I am, a wretched fool, no wiser than I was before.

Painting predicates what man wants to see, and what man ought to see, not what he ordinarily sees.

I am part of the part that once was everything, Part of the darkness which gave birth to light… Mephistopheles, from Faust.

The mortal race is far too weak not to grow dizzy on unwonted brights.

One must keep repeating the Truth.

Chess is the touchstone of intellect.