Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“His easy going behavior contrasts greatly with my restlessness”

“Und zuletzt, des Lichts begierig,Bist du Schmetterling verbrannt”

“Shame upon him who can look on calmly, and exclaim,‘The foolish girl! she should have waited; she should haveallowed time to wear off the impression; her despair wouldhave been softened, and she would have found another loverto comfort her.’ One might as well say, ‘The fool, to die of afever! why did he not wait till his strength was restored, tillhis blood became calm? all would then have gone well, andhe would have been alive now.”

“Is it not enough that we cannot make one another happy, must we also rob one another of the pleasures that any heart may permit itself now and then? And name me a person who in a bad mood will be decent enough to hide it, to bear it alone, without destroying the joy around him. Is it not rather an inner dissatisfaction with our own unworthiness, a dislike of ourselves that is always associated with envy aggravated by foolish conceit? We see people happy and not made happy by us, and that is unbearable.”

“There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.”

“An unused life is an early death.”

“Doar ce creeaza clipa, se dovedeste bun.”

“Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.”

“As long as on the earth endures his lifeTo deal with him have full and free permission;Man's hour on earth is weakness, error, strife.”

“That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way as us.”

“Nothing is more dangerous than solitude.”

“Tot așa cum galbenul este intotdeauna asociat cu lumina, se poate spune și că albastrul aduce cu el și un principiu al întunericului. Această culoare are un efect special și aproape indescriptibil asupra ochiului. Pe scara culorilor este una puternică, însă de partea negativă, și la maximum de puritate este, cum s-ar zice, o negație stimulatoare. Aspectul său este deci un fel de contradicție între excitație și calm.”

“Tengo tanto para dar y mis sentimientos hacia lo consumen todo, tengo tanto, tanto, y sin ella todo se convierte en nada.”

“¿Por qué será que lo que colma de felicidad al hombre es al mismo tiempo la fuente de sus desgracias?”

“En esta vida son pocos los momentos que se resuelven con un sí o con un no.”

“Non, je ne me trompe pas ! je lis dans ses yeux noirs le sincère intérêtqu'elle prend à moi et à mon sort. Oui, je sens, et là-dessus je puis m'enrapporter à mon coeur, je sens qu'elle… Oh ! l'oserai-je ? oserai-je prononcerce mot qui vaut le ciel ?… Elle m'aime !Elle m'aime ! combien je me deviens cher à moi-même ! combien…j'ose te le dire à toi, tu m'entendras… combien je m'adore depuis qu'ellem'aime !”

“Si notre coeur était toujours ouvert au bien que Dieu nousenvoie chaque jour, nous aurions alors assez de force pour supporter lemal quand il se présente.”

“To me the mountain mass lies nobly mute,The whences and the whys I don't dispute.When Nature by and in herself was founded,In purity the earthen sphere she rounded.In summit and in gorge did pleasure seek,And threaded cliff to cliff and peak to peak;Then did she fashion sloping hills at peaceAnd gently down into the vale release.All greens and grows, and to her gay abundanceYour swirling lunacies are sheer redundance.”

“Exageras tudo e, por certo, cometes pelo menos o erro de aceitar o suicídio, que é do que estamos falando agora, como se fosse uma grande ação, quando não é nada mais do que simplesmente fraqueza. Pois, para ser sincero, é mais fácil morrer do que suportar com firmeza uma vida de tormentos.”

“Isso é bem outra coisa", replicou Alberto, "porque um homem que se deixa arrastar por uma paixão violenta perde a faculdade de refletir e deve ser considerado como um ébrio, como um demente.”

“¿Es que tenía que ser así, que lo que hace la felicidad del hombre sea también la fuente de su desdicha?”

“When a human awakens to a great dream and throws the full force of his soul over it, all the universe conspires in your favor.”

“A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.”

“Nimeni nu este mai inrobit decat un captiv care se crede liber”

“Die Gewalt einer Sprache ist nicht, daß sie das Fremde abweist, sondern daß sie es verschlingt.”

“Yes, one is on the right track when one does not know what one is thinking when one is thinking; everything is handed to one, as it were.”

“All our most honest toil succeeds only in unconscious moments. For how would the rose blossom if it were aware of the splendor of the sun!”

“God save you, my brethren, with all your -isms and schisms! I am a citizen of the world, and a man of Weimer. I have established myself by culture in this choice society; and if anyone knows a better place, let him go to it.”

“If there is confusion in your head and in your heart, what more do you want! A man who no longer loves and no longer errs should have himself buried straight away.”

“Whatever truths or fables you may find in a thousand books, it is all a tower of Babel unless love holds it together.”

“There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few priveledged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.”

“I examine my own being, and find there a world, but a world rather of imagination and dim desires, than of distinctness and living power. Then everything swims before my senses, and I smile and dream while pursuing my way through the world.”

“If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.”

“Goats, to the left with you!' the Judge one day will ordain. 'And you, little sheep, stand quietly here on my right!' - Fair enough; but it is to be hoped he will say one thing more, namely: 'As for you, stand right opposite me, you men of sense!”

“I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.”

“The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.”

“Colors are light's suffering and joy”

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”

“Live dangerously and you live right.”

“He values my understanding and talents more highly than my heart, but I am proud of the latter only. It is the sole source of everything of our strength, happiness, and misery. All the knowledge I possess every one else can acquire, but my heart is exclusively my own.”

“Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves; and I have so much trouble with myself, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.”

“The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannot be explored.”

“Des Menschen Kraft, im Dichter offenbartThe human power is revealed by poetIl potere dell'umanità si rivela nel poeta”

“I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and its activity will continue through eternity.”

“What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.”

“Dove c'è molta luce, l'ombra è più nera...”

“And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened,If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.”

“Was ich besitze, seh ich wie im Weiten,Und was verschwand, wird mir zu Wirklichkeiten.”

“What matters creative endless toil, When, at a snatch, oblivion ends the coil?”

“Must it ever be thus-that the source of our happiness must also be the fountain of our misery? The full and ardent sentiment which animated my heart with the love of nature, overwhelming me with a torrent of delight, and which brought all paradise before me, has now become an insupportable torment, a demon which perpetually pursues and harrasses me.”