Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 18

• I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times... Man is a dialogue between nature and God. On other planets this dialogue will doubtless be of a higher and profounder character. What is lacking is Self-Knowledge. After that the rest will follow.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Character, Men, Self

  5 Copy quote

• You don't love if you don't take the beloved's faults for virtues.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Faults, Virtue

  6 Copy quote

• Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, Past, History

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1897). “Criticisms, reflections, and maxims of Goethe: Tr., with an introduction”

  9 Copy quote

• Whoever would do good in the world, ought not to deal in censure. We ought not to destroy, but rather construct.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Library, World, Deals

  7 Copy quote

• To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Government, Politics, Easy

  13 Copy quote

• They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Sober, Should

  Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Marcelle Clements (2013). “The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings”, p.41, Penguin

  12 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

• 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

• We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Funny, Sarcastic, Teaching

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1982). “Wilhelm Meister's Years of Travel or the Renunciants”, Riverrun Pr

  9 Copy quote

• But one must know where one stands, and where the others wish to go.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Advice, Wish, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Success, Errors, Long

  9 Copy quote

• Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Wisdom, Literature

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Stuart Blackie (1883). “The Wisdom of Goethe”, Edinburgh, W. Blackwood

  50 Copy quote

• We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Time, Yesterday, Today

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Distance, Boys, Two

  7 Copy quote

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Sight, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Missing, Coats, Firsts

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.130, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  4 Copy quote

• A useless life is an early death.
  [Ger., Ein unnutz Leben ist ein fruher Tod.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Useless, Indolence

  16 Copy quote

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Being Strong, Inspirational Life, Needs

  18 Copy quote

• He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wish, Energy, May

  13 Copy quote

• The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty,
  Even though this world is forever altering its values.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Forever, Humanity, World

  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

• A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Education, Teacher

  "Torquato Tasso". Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Act 1, Scene 2, 1790.

  11 Copy quote

• What is part of you, you cannot get rid of, even if you were to throw it away.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Human Nature, Ifs

  5 Copy quote

• It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Literature, Fool, Merit

  18 Copy quote

• Great passions are incurable diseases.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Passion, Disease, Incurable Disease

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1853). “Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art”, p.113

  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