Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 40

• Each traveler should know what he has to see, and what properly belongs to him, on a journey.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Travel, Journey, Should

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann, Frédéric Jacob Soret (1850). “Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret”, p.86

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• What men usually say of misfortunes, that they never come alone, may with equal truth be said of good fortune; nay, of other circumstances which gather round us in a harmonious way, whether it arise from a kind of fatality, or that man has the power of attracting to himself things that are mutually related.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, May, Way

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• A man may twist as he pleases, and do what he pleases, but he inevitably comes back to the track to which nature has destined him.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Track, Twists

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1849). “The auto-biography of Goethe: Truth and poetry: from my life”, p.114

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• He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Doe, Knows

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 487-93, Torquato Tasso. I. 2. 72, 1922.

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• Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Superstitions, Poet, Practicals

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1853). “Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art”, p.111

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• My inheritance how lordly wide and fair;
  Time is my fair seed-field, to Time I'm heir.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Time, Inheritance, Heirs

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• Our virtues and view spring from one root.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Spring, Views, Roots

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• The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Poetry, Doe, Asking

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• I curse all negative purism that tells me not to use a word from another language that either expresses something that my own language cannot or does that in a more delicate manner.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Negative, Doe, Use

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• Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Father, Conviction, Convinced

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• Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though he still loved her.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Beautiful, Running, Looks

  "Maxims and Reflections". Book by by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Elisabeth Stopp. Maxim 246, 1998.

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• To like things like, whatever one may ail; There is certain help.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  May, Helping, Certain

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• Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Agents, Action, Virtue

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• Limitation of aims is the mother of wisdom and the secret of achievement.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mother, Achievement, Secret

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• There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Illustration, Differences

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• Men in a state of nature, uncivilized nations, children, have a great fondness for colors in their utmost brightness, and especially for yellow-red.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Children, Men, Yellow

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• Should I not be proud, when for twenty years I have had to admit to myself that the great Newton and all the mathematicians and noble calculators along with him were involved in a decisive error with respect to the doctrine of color, and that I among millions was the only one who knew what was right in this great subject of nature?

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Errors, Color, Years

  Letter to Eckermann, December 30, 1823.

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• What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Philosopher, Language

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.222, Ravenio Books

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• Whoever strenuously endeavors, him we can rescue.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Rescue, Endeavor

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• The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Data, Age

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• The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Happiness, Laughter, Men

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• The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Reality, Use

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• If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Women, Years, Different

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• The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Goal, World

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• I've often heard it said a preacher might learn with a comedian for a teacher.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Teacher, Comedian, Might

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1872). “Faust: A Tragedy”, p.21

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