Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature and aesthetic criticism, and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is considered to be the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's selected quotes:
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the ...
Read More
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking....
Read More
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at....
Read More
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all ...
Read More
Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this....
Read More
Choose your favorite language to see these quotes translated:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works insert plays, poetry, literature and aesthetic criticism, and treatises upon botany, anatomy, and colour. He is considered to be the greatest German assistant professor figure of the broadminded era.
Goethe took up address in Weimar in November 1775 bearing in mind the skill of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). He was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August, in 1782. He was an in advance participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a believer of the Duke’s privy council, sat on the clash and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in manageable Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He after that contributed to the planning of Weimar’s botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace.
Goethe’s first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791 he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, whose plays he premiered until Schiller’s death in 1805. During this epoch Goethe published his second novel, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship; the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808, the first allocation of his most much-admired drama, Faust. His conversations and various shared endeavors throughout the 1790s gone Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Johann Gottfried Herder, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and August and Friedrich Schlegel have ascend be collectively termed Weimar Classicism.
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer named Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship one of the four greatest novels ever written, while the American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson fixed Goethe as one of six “representative men” in his operate of the same name (along like Plato, Emanuel Swedenborg, Montaigne, Napoleon, and Shakespeare). Goethe’s observations and notes form the basis of several biographical works, notably Johann Peter Eckermann’s Conversations once Goethe (1836).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Quotes
All quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe sorted alphabetically:
A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.
Read More
A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.
Read More
A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Read More
A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.
Read More
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
Read More
All intelligent thoughts have already been thought, what is necessary is only to try to think them again.
Read More
All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
Read More
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Read More
Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.
Read More
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Read More
Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.
Read More
Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.
Read More
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.
Read More
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
Read More
Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.
Read More
Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.
Read More
Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Read More
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
Read More
Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.
Read More
Death is a commingling of eternity with time, in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.
Read More
Divide and rule, the politician cries, unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
Read More
Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.
Read More
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
Read More
Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
Read More
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.
Read More
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
Read More
Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
Read More
Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.
Read More
Everybody wants to be somebody, nobody wants to grow.
Read More
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
Read More
First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
Read More
Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.
Read More
For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.
Read More
Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
Read More
Girls we love for what they are, young men for what they promise to be.
Read More
Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike, there is but one step from envy to hate.
Read More
Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.
Read More
He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.
Read More
Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
Read More
He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Read More
He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.
Read More
He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.
Read More
He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.
Read More
He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.
Read More
I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life, it teaches better that book or orator.
Read More
I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.
Read More
I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.
Read More
I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.
Read More
I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.
Read More
If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.
Read More
If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.
Read More
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
Read More
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
Read More
If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.
Read More
If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.
Read More
If your treat an individual... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
Read More
If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.
Read More
If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
Read More
In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
Read More
It is after all the greatest art to limit and isolate oneself.
Read More
In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.
Read More
It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.
Read More
It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
Read More
It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.
Read More
It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.
Read More
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
Read More
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
Read More
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
Read More
Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
Read More
Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
Read More
Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
Read More
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.
Read More
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.
Read More
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
Read More
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
Read More
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Read More
Nothing is to be rated higher than the value of the day.
Read More
Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.
Read More
Nothing is more fearful than imagination without taste.
Read More
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
Read More
Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.
Read More
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
Read More
One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.
Read More
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
Read More
One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best.
Read More
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
Read More
Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.
Read More
Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.
Read More
Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.
Read More
Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.
Read More
Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.
Read More
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
Read More
That I be not as those are who spend the day in complaining of headache and the night in drinking the wine which gives the headache!
Read More
The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.
Read More
The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.
Read More
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
Read More
The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.
Read More
The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.
Read More
The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.
Read More
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
Read More
The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
Read More
The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.
Read More
The people who are absent are the ideal, those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.
Read More
The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.
Read More
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
Read More
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
Read More
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
Read More
The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.
Read More
There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.
Read More
There is a courtesy of the heart, it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
Read More
There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.
Read More
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.
Read More
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
Read More
There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.
Read More
This is the highest wisdom that I own, freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
Read More
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.
Read More
To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us.
Read More
Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.
Read More
To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.
Read More
Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.
Read More
Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
Read More
We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.
Read More
We can't form our children on our own concepts, we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.
Read More
We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.
Read More
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
Read More
We don't get to know people when they come to us, we must go to them to find out what they are like.
Read More
We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
Read More
What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
Read More
What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.
Read More
What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.
Read More
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
Read More
Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.
Read More
Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.
Read More
What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.
Read More
Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.
Read More