Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Wild dreams torment me as I lie. And though a god lives in my heart, though all my power waken at his word, though he can move my every inmost part - yet nothing in the outer world is stirred. thus by existence tortured and oppressed I crave for death, I long for rest.

The child, offered the mother's breast, Will not in the beginning grab it; But soon it clings to it with zest. And thus at wisdom's copious breasts You'll drink each day with greater zest.

You can put up with everything in this world except not with a long stretch of beautiful days.

Self knowledge is best learned not by contemplation, but by action.

Perseverance is a silent power that grows irresistibly greater with time.

Your messages I hear, but faith has not been given; The dearest child of Faith is Miracle.

In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!

A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.

He is the happiest man who can see the connection between the end and the beginning of life.

Power is neither male nor female.

Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.

Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves.

Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.

People always fancy that we must become old to become wise; but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep ourselves as wise as we were.

Some books seem to have been written, not to teach us anything, but to let us know that the author has known something.

Literature is a fragment of a fragment. Of all that ever happened, or has been said, but a fraction has been written; and of this but little is extant.

When young, one is confident to be able to build palaces for mankind, but when the time comes one has one's hands full just to be able to remove their trash.

Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions; one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.

To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability.

When the boy begins to understand that the visible point is preceded by an invisible point, that the shortest distance between two points is conceived as a straight line before it is ever drawn with pencil and paper...the fountain of all thought has been opened to him...the philosopher can reveal him nothing new, as a geometrician he has discovered the basis of all thought.

I bid the chords sweet music make, And all must follow in my wake.

Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.

The flowers of life are but illusions. How many fade away and leave no trace.

‎It has ever been my fate to give pain to those whose happiness I should have promoted.

If we could do away with death, we wouldn't object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time.

True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility and poverty, and, despite mockery and disgrace, wretchedness, suffering, and death, as things divine.

Microscopes and telescopes really confuse our minds.

The dear good people don't know how long it takes to learn to read. I've been at it eighty years, and can't say yet that I've reached the goal.

People can only live with their equals, and not even with them; for in the long run they cannot tolerate that someone is their equal.

In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is, but that which we hope for.

Great necessity elevates man, petty necessity casts him down

Every need whose true satisfaction is denied leads by necessity to faith.

Mysterious in the light of day, nature retains her veil, despite our clamours: That which she does not willingly display cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws and hammers.

Lay hold of life with both hands, whenever thou mayest seize it, it is interesting.

The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five.

Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues.

Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.

If the whole world I once could see On free soil stand, with the people free Then to the moment might I say, Linger awhile. . .so fair thou art.

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

God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.

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.

Our passions are true phoenixes; as the old burn out the new straight rise up from the ashes.

He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.

All men would be masters of others, and no man is lord of himself.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff for that purpose in it; and a man becomes renowned because he has the necessary stuff in him. Renown is not to be sought, and all pursuit of it is vain. A person may, indeed, by skillful conduct and various artificial means, make a sort of name for himself; but if the inner jewel is wanting, all is vanity, and will not last a day.

There is a politeness of the heart; this is closely allied to love.

The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.

We are pantheists as natural scientists, polytheists as poets, and monotheists as moral beings.