Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 19

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Giving, Shapes, Deny

  6 Copy quote

• There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Pay, Weakness

  4 Copy quote

• He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.
  [Ger., Aber wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mold, World, Firm

  31 Copy quote

• How circumscribed is woman's destiny!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Destiny

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Anna SWANWICK (1843). “Selections from the Dramas of Goethe and Schiller, Translated, with Introductory Remarks, by Anna Swanwick”, p.2

  4 Copy quote

• Nature is beneficent. I praise her and all her works. She is silent and wise. She is cunning, but for good ends. She has brought me here and will also lead me away. She may scold me, but she will not hate her work. I trust her.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Nature, Hate

  14 Copy quote

• You will find the most pronounced hatred of other nations on the lowest cultural levels. There is, though, a level where the hatred disappears completely and where one so to speak stands above the nations and where one experiences fortune or misfortune of a neighboring country as if they had happened to one's own.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Country, Disappear Completely, Hatred

  9 Copy quote

• There is nothing new on earth / For a person who lives long and experiences much. / In my years of youthful wandering / I have seen crystallized people.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Years, Long, People

  7 Copy quote

• He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, Doe, Lines

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.161, Ravenio Books

  5 Copy quote

• Experience is only half of experience.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Experience, Half

  7 Copy quote

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Light, Darkness, Birth

  29 Copy quote

• It is natural to man to regard himself as the object of the creation, and to think of all things in relation to himself, and the degree in which they can serve and be useful to him.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Thinking, Degrees

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1839). “Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of His Life”, p.369

  7 Copy quote

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Eye, Dark, Light

  4 Copy quote

• Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence;
  The last result of wisdom stamps it true;
  He only earns his freedom and existence
  Who daily conquers them anew.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wisdom, Freedom, Persistence

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1912). “Faust”

  9 Copy quote

• The threshold is the place of expectation.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Expectations, Threshold

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1855). “Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship: A novel from the German. Transl. by R. Dillon Boylan. Complete in 1 vol”, p.464

  13 Copy quote

• It is the fortunate who should extol fortune.
  [Ger., Das Gluck erhebe billig der Begluckte.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Should, Fortune, Fortunate

  5 Copy quote

• The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Christian, Atheist, Errors

  9 Copy quote

• Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Music, Doe, Novelty

  9 Copy quote

• I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Memorable, Unrequited Love, Feelings

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2000). “Selected Works: Including The Sorrows of Young Werther, Elective Affinities, Italian Journey, Faust”, Everyman's Library

  6 Copy quote

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Giving, Judging

  4 Copy quote

• Let no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each one perfect in himself.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Perfect, Meaning Of Life, Done

  25 Copy quote

• Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Knowledge, Thinking, Knowing

  21 Copy quote

• Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Science, Men, Limits

  4 Copy quote

• How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new--
  Important matter yet attractive too?
  [Ger., Wie machen wir's, dass alles frisch und neu
  Und mit Bedeutung auch gefallig sei?]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Important, Mit, Matter

  7 Copy quote

• Only the heart without a stain knows ease.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Heart, Ease, Stains

  9 Copy quote

• A mind, once formed, is never suited after,
  One yet in growth will ever grateful be.
  [Ger., Wer fertig ist, dem ist nichts recht zu machen,
  Ein Werdender wird immer dankbar sein.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Grateful, Growth, Mind

  7 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Friedrich Schiller

Heinrich Heine

Friedrich Nietzsche

Lord Byron

William Shakespeare

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Johann Gottfried Herder

Immanuel Kant