Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 53

• Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Action

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• Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquility of soul. Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and object are mostly hypocrites.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hypocrite, Mean, Soul

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3516, Delphi Classics

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• The present is a powerful deity.
  [Ger., Die Gegenwart ist eine machtige Gottin.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Powerful, Today, Deities

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• The eternal feminine doth draw us upward.
  [Ger., Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Women, Feminine, Draws

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• Every form correctly seen is beautiful

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Beautiful, Form

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• A stated truth loses its grace, but a repeated error appears insipid and ridiculous.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Truth, Errors, Grace

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• If you have a great work in your head, nothing else thrives near it; all other thoughts are repelled, and the pleasure of life itself is for the time lost.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Pleasure, Great Work, Lost

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.39, Ravenio Books

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• I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Achievement, Enemy, Opponents

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• Not art and science only, but patience will be required for the work.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Science, Art And Science

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• Ambition and love are the wings of great actions.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Ambition, Wings, And Love

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• Thou shalt abstain, Renounce, refrain.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Temptation, Renounce, Refrain

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Faust: Top Classic of German”, p.80, 谷月社

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• Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities, merits, and achievements, but because of one's individual existence. At best, therefore, it is a frivolous beauty whim it befits.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Running, Personal Qualities, Vanity

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.134, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• There are three classes of readers; some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged. Its numbers are very small.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Reading, Class

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1853). “Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art”, p.34

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• To be active is the primary vocation of man.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Action, Vocation

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

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• Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Nature, Book, Important

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• Yes, my love, who soever lives, loses, . . . but he also wins.
  [Ger., Ja, meine Liebe, wer lebt, verliebt . . . aber er gewinnt auch.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Success, Winning, Loses

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• All that is alive tends toward color, individuality, specificity, effectiveness and opacity. All that is done with life inclines toward knowledge, abstraction, generality transfiguration and transparency.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Effectiveness, Color, Individuality

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• It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Leadership, Men, Hands

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• One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Eye, Hands, Giving

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• Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Encouragement, Doe, Letters

  Letter to A. F. Oeser, November 09, 1768.

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• Names are but noise and smoke, Obscuring heavenly light.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Light, Names, Noise

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• The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Sound, Poet, Should

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.163, Ravenio Books

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• The words you've bandied are sufficient;
  'Tis deeds that I prefer to see.
  [Ger., Der Worte sind genug gewechselt,
  Lasst mich auch endlich Thaten sehn.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Deeds, Sufficient

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• In all things, to serve from the lowest station upwards is necessary. To restrict yourself to a trade is best. For the narrow mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade; for the higher, an art; and the highest in doing one thing does all, or, to speak less paradoxically, in the one thing which he does rightly he sees the likeness of all that is done rightly.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Speak Less, Mind

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (1824). “Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels”, p.228

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• Most men, even the most accomplished, are of limited faculties; every one sets a value on certain qualities in himself and others: these alone he is willing to favour, these alone will he have cultivated.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Quality, Favour

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