Faust Quotes

• Dante can be understood only within the context of Italian thought, and Faust would be unthinkable if divorced from its German background; but both are part of our common cultural heritage.

  Gustav Stresemann

  Italian, Would Be, Heritage

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• The writer is the Faust of modern society, the only surviving individualist in a mass age. To his orthodox contemporaries he seems a semi-madman.

  Boris Pasternak

  Writing, Age, Modern

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• In every first novel the hero is the author as Christ or Faust.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hero, Firsts, Christ

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Ein Granatapfelhaus”, p.103, marixverlag

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• Who are you then?" "I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Evil

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• The finished man, you know, is difficult to please; a growing mind will ever show you gratitude. --Faust 1, lines 182-3

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Gratitude, Men, Mind

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• Mephistopheles, the machine man, can provide us with all the means, and is thus likely to determine the aims of life as well. But of course the characteristic of Faust, which makes him eligible to be saved, is that he seeks aims that are not those of the machine.

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Mean, Men

  Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.24, Anchor

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• Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Devil, Caught, Wells

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1984). “Faust”

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• Oh, happy he who still hopes he can emerge from Error's boundless sea! - Faust.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Errors, Sea, Stills

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• Hegel understood the Heisenbergian reality of knowing: yes, it would be nice if we could somehow delicately capture the truth and bring it closer to ourselves without altering it, "like a bird caught with a limestick." But the reality is, every truth we manage to know is altered, deformed by our very "encheiresis naturae," by the act of our taking-in-hand of nature (to borrow the alchemists' phrase from Goethe's Faust).

  Kenny Smith

  Truth, Nice, Reality

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• 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

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• Life is more than thought: what a man feels, and what his senses awaken in him, are more indispensable to his life's fullness than subsequent reflection on their significance. Both Stirner and Nietzsche have elaborated Faust's opening speech in which he bemoans his wasted years in academia: this speech is Goethe's own impeachment of Kant and Hegel . Philosophy proceeds always under the risk of making a fetish of thinking.

  John Carroll

  Philosophy, Reflection, Men

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• Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment, 'Stay, thou art so fair.

  Robert Kennedy

  Art, Ambition, Passing Moments

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• Faust, the Ninth Symphony, and the will of Adolf Hitler are eternal youth and know neither time nor transience.

  Baldur von Schirach

  Symphony, Youth, Eternal

  "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership". Book by Joachim C. Fest , p. 221, 1999.

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• But Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment: "Stay, thou art so fair." And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past are certain to miss the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  Time, Art, Past

  Kennedy, John F. (1964). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963”, p.517, Best Books on

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• All literature is a footnote to Faust. I have no idea what I mean by that.

  Woody Allen

  Mean, Ideas, Literature

  Woody Allen (2007). “The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose”, Random House Incorporated

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• Hannibal at eighteen was rooting for Mephistopheles and contemptuous of Faust, but he only half-listened to the climax. He was watching and breathing Lady Murasaki...

  Thomas Harris

  Breathing, Half, Mephistopheles

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• Once I blazed across the sky, Leaving trails of flame; I fell to earth, and here I lie - Who'll help me up again? -A Shooting Star

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Stars, Lying, Flames

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• Judas sold his soul for thirty pieces of silver; Faust sold his for some extra years of youth; Marilyn Monroe deserted Jesus Christ for Arthur Miller.

  Nicholas Samstag

  Jesus, Years, Soul

  Nicholas Samstag (1962). “The Uses of Ineptitude; Or: How Not to Want to Do Better”, Astor-Honor Incorporated

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• My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain, I learn in vain... For as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love.

  Susan Kay

  Art, Lying, Hands

  "Phantom". Book by Susan Kay, 1990.

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• Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.

  Otto von Bismarck

  Two, Soul, Crowds

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• Upon the publication of Goethe's epic drama, the Faustian legend had reached an almost unapproachable zenith. Although many failed to appreciate, or indeed, to understand this magnum opus in its entirety, from this point onward his drama was the rule by which all other Faust adaptations were measured. Goethe had eclipsed the earlier legends and became the undisputed authority on the subject of Faust in the eyes of the new Romantic generation. To deviate from his path would be nothing short of blasphemy.

  E. A. Bucchianeri

  Drama, Eye, Epic

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• You received the power, the authority, and the sacred duty to minister the moment you were ordained to the priesthood. President James E. Faust taught, “Priesthood is the authority delegated to man to minister in the name of God. “The Aaronic Priesthood holds the keys of the ministering of angels.
  As you love His children, Heavenly Father will guide you, and angels will assist you. You will be given power to bless lives and rescue souls.

  David L. Beck

  Children, Father, Angel

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• Squeezing yourself to ooze out the last ounce of sex allure is terribly hard. I'd like to do roles like Julie in Bury the Dead, Gretchen in Faust and Teresa in Cradle Song.

  Marilyn Monroe

  Song, Sex, Roles

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• In fact a favourite problem of Tyndall is-Given the molecular forces in a mutton chop, deduce Hamlet or Faust therefrom. He is confident that the Physics of the Future will solve this easily.

  Thomas Huxley

  Science, Facts, Literature

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• Faust seems to have exerted a big influence on Star Wars. You know, the "give up your soul for immortality" or something.

  Cass Sunstein

  Stars, Giving Up, War

  "Cass Sunstein explains why Star Wars is like America". Interview with Alex McLevy, film.avclub.com. June 2, 2016.

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