Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Du hast so viele Leben, wie du Sprachen sprichst. (You have as many lives as the number of languages you speak.)

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A mans manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I think of you when upon the sea the sun flings her beams.I think of you when the moonlight shines in silvery streams.I see you when upon the distant hills the dust awakes;At night when on a fragile bridge the traveler quakes.I hear you when the billows rise on high,With murmur deep.To tread the silent grove where wander I,When all's asleep.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I think of you when upon the sea the sun flings her beams. I think of you when the moonlight shines in silvery streams. I see you when upon the distant hills the dust awakes; At night when on a fragile bridge the traveler quakes.I hear you when the blows rise on high, with murmur deep. To tread the silent grove where wander I, When all's asleep.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

if only these treasures were not so fragile as they are precious and beautiful.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch, his virtues and greatness belong to himself.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Naturalists tell of a noble race of horses that instinctively open a vein with their teeth, when heated and exhausted by a long course, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein, to procure for myself everlasting liberty. Cento volte ho impugnato una lama per conficcarmela nel cuore. Si dice di una nobile razza i cavalli,che quando si sentono accaldati e affaticati, si aprono istintivamente una vena, per respirare più liberamente. Spesso anche io vorrei aprirmi una vena che mi desse libertà eterna.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they find to laugh at.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

schade dass die Natur nur einen Mensch aus dir schuf / denn zum wurdigen Mann war und zum Schelmen der Stoff (loose translation: nature, alas, made only one being out of you although there was material for a good man & a rogue)

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and -- if at all possible -- speak a few sensible words.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Des Menschen Kraft, im Dichter offenbartThe human power is revealed by poetIl potere dell'umanità si rivela nel poeta

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The world turns gray, the air grows cool, the fog blows in. Only at evening can you really value home.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Each one's no longer consciousOf the high wall, or the rest:Since the one enduring fortress,Is the soldier's iron breast.If you’d live unconquered,Quickly arm, and fight the real foe:Every wife an Amazon bred,And every child a hero.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

In this world one is seldom reduced to make a selection between two alternatives. There are as many varieties of conduct and opinion as there are turns of feature between an aquiline nose and a flat one.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Classicism is health, romanticisim is sickness.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Grant me one hour on love’s most sacred shoresTo clasp the bosom that my soul adores,Lie heart to heart and merge my soul with yours.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I will say nothing against the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I will say nothing... against the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time, are either psychopaths or mountebanks.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Man needs only a small patch of earth for his pleasures, and a smaller one still to rest beneath.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Solitude is precious balm to my heart in these paradistic parts.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The things I know, every man can know, but, oh, my heart is mine alone!

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The Church has an excellent appetite. She has swallowed whole countries and the questionHas never risen of indigestion. Only the Church . . . can take Ill-gotten goods without stomach-ache!

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. ... In the real world, all rests on perseverance.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is strong shadow where there is much light.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Everything transitory is but an image.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Gracious Providence, to whom I owe all my powers, why didst thou not withhold some of those blessings I possess, and substitute in their place a feeling of self-confidence and contentment?

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

As usual, I shall tell my story badly; and you, as usual, will think me extravagant.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There occurs the beautiful feeling that only humanity together is the true human being, and that the individual can be cheerful and happy only if he has the courage to feel himself in the Whole.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

15General ideas and great conceit are always a fair way to bring about terrible misfortune.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us mastery over ourselves is destructive.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe