Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 34

• A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Life, Magic

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• And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Two, Events, Wickedness

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2016). “THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER (Literary Classics Series): Historical Romance Novel”, p.3, e-artnow

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• Moral epochs have their course as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun, moon, and stars. Our faults perpetually return upon us; and herein lies the subtlest difficulty of self-knowledge.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Stars, Lying, Moon

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• Any trifle is enough to entertain two lovers.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Two, Enough

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• The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, He Man, Masters

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• Who longs in solitude to live, Ah! soon his wish will gain: Men hope and love, men get and give, and leave him to his pain.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Hope, Pain

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.233, Delphi Classics

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• The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Vision, Spirit

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• If society gives up the right to impose the death penalty, then self-help will appear again and personal vendettas will be around the corner.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Giving Up, Self, Helping

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• The rogue has everywhere the advantage.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Rogues, Advantage

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1850). “Dramatic works: Comprising Faust, Iphigenia in Tauris, Torquato Tasso, Egmont. Transl. by Anna Swanwick. And Goetz v. Berlichingen. Transl. by Sir Walter Scott. Carefully rev”, p.364

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• Shakespeare is a great psychologist, and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Heart, Men, Play

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• Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant passages.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Book, People, Mind

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• He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  World, Belief, This World

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• There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Simplicity, World, Found

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• Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Literature, Ordinary, Missions

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• Man's restlessness makes him strive.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Strive, Restlessness

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• Mannerism always wants to be finished and doesn't enjoy the process. Genuine, truly great talent, however, finds its greatest satisfaction in the production.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Want, Satisfaction, Talent

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• The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Gains, Nothing To Lose, Loses

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• What I possess, seems far away to me, and what is gone becomes reality.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Reality, Gone, Far Away

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

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• I must consider more closely this cycle of good and bad days which I find coursing within myself. Passion, attachment, the urge to action, inventiveness, performance, order all alternate and keep their orbit; cheerfulness, vigor, energy, flexibility and fatigue, serenity as well as desire. Nothing disturbs the cycle for I lead a simple life, but I must still find the time and order in which I rotate.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Bad Day, Passion

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• Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Beauty, Nature, Reflection

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.238, Ravenio Books

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• I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  War, Appreciate, Enemy

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• Give me those days with heart in riot, The depths of bliss that touched on pain, The force of hate, and love's disquiet- Ah, give me back my youth again!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Pain, Hate, Heart

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1984). “Faust”

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• We eagerly get hold of a law that serves as a weapon to our passions.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Passion, Law, Weapons

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• There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste.
  [Ger., Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Imagination, Als, Taste

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• Whoso is content with pure experience and acts upon it has enough of truth.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Experience, Enough, Pure

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.59, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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