Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 27

• Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Power, Thinking, Focus

  17 Copy quote

• It's true that nothing in this world makes us so necessary to others as the affection we have for them.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  World, Affection, This World

  4 Copy quote

• A distracted existence leads us to no goal

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Goal, Setting Goals, Existence

  9 Copy quote

• Know'st thou yesterday, its aim and reason? Work'st thou will today for worthier things? Then calmly wait the morrow's hidden season, And fear thou not, what hap soe'er it brings

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Fear, Work, Yesterday

  7 Copy quote

• People are always talking about originality, but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us, and this goes on to the end.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mean, Talking, People

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.160, Ravenio Books

  7 Copy quote

• Tis Lilith.
  Who?
  Adam's first wife is she.
  Beware the lure within her lovely tresses,
  The splendid sole adornment of her hair;
  When she succeeds therewith a youth to snare,
  Not soon again she frees him from her jesses.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Women, Hair, Wife

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2008). “Faust”, p.178, PR Seitz Bookseller

  7 Copy quote

• Nothing is more fearful than imagination without taste.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Imagination, Literature, Taste

  8 Copy quote

• Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Knowledge, Men, Self

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.1891, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

• The child, offered the mother's breast, Will not in the beginning grab it; But soon it clings to it with zest. And thus at wisdom's copious breasts You'll drink each day with greater zest.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mother, Wisdom, Children

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Walter Arnold Kaufmann (1963). “Goethe's Faust: part one and sections from part two”, Anchor

  7 Copy quote

• He alone deserves liberty and life who daily must win them anew.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Winning, Liberty, Deserve

  14 Copy quote

• People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Aptitude, Originality

  7 Copy quote

• Woe to falsehood! it affords no relief to the breast, like truth; it gives us no comfort, pains him who forges it, and like an arrow directed by a god flies back and wounds the archer.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Pain, Archer, Arrows

  7 Copy quote

• If you inquire what people are like here, I must answer, "The same as everywhere."

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Answers, Ifs

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER (Literary Classics Series): Historical Romance Novel”, p.5, e-artnow

  6 Copy quote

• Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Layers, Superstitions, Sensitive

  9 Copy quote

• The sickness of the heart is most easily got rid of by complaining and soothing confidence.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Grief, Heart, Complaining

  7 Copy quote

• Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Lying, Wish, Able

  8 Copy quote

• When young, one is confident to be able to build palaces for mankind, but when the time comes one has one's hands full just to be able to remove their trash.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hands, Able, Palaces

  Letter to Johann Kaspar Lavatar, March 06, 1780.

  7 Copy quote

• Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Funny, Humorous, Math

  16 Copy quote

• The thinking person has the strange characteristic to like to create a fantasy in the place of the unsolved problem, a fantasy that stays with the person even when the problem has been solved and truth made its appearance.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Strange, Fantasy

  4 Copy quote

• We are surrounded by abysses, but the greatest of all depths is in our own heart, and an irresistible leaning leads us there. Draw thyself from thyself!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Heart, Temptation, Depth

  7 Copy quote

• Water its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Edgar Alfred BOWRING (1853). “The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres, with a Sketch of Goethe's Life. By E. A. Bowring”, p.331

  9 Copy quote

• No two people see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will often apply the same principle, recognized by both, differently. Even one and the same person won't always maintain the same views and judgments: earlier convictions must give way to later ones.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Two, Views, Giving

  7 Copy quote

• There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another and lose themselves in dull indifference.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Running, Anxiety, Together

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1872). “Elective Affinities: A Novel”, p.173

  5 Copy quote

• Wisdom is only found in truth.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wisdom, Judgment, Found

  "Goethes Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen". Book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, III,

  4 Copy quote

• Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Believe, Air, Giving

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.82, Ravenio Books

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Friedrich Schiller

Heinrich Heine

Friedrich Nietzsche

Lord Byron

William Shakespeare

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Johann Gottfried Herder

Immanuel Kant