Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We can accept the unpleasant more readily than we can the inconsequential.”

“Like star that shines afar, slowly now, and without rest, let each man turn with steady sway, around the task that rules the day, and do his best.”

“It is delightful to transport one's self into the spirit of the past, to see how a wise man has thought before us.”

“[...] car j'ai appris que tous les hommes extraordinaires qui ont fait quelque chose de grand, quelque chose qui semblait impossible, ont de tout temps été qualifiés d'ivres et d'insensés.”

“Man muss immer tun, was man nicht lassen kann.”

“تو کافیست لحظه‌های گویای زندگی را دریابی و جرئت کنی که به زبانش بیاوری. در آن صورت با کلماتی اندک کلامی بسیار گفته‌ای.ا”

“We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection--which we have ourselves created.”

“The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honour or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.”

“No one is willing to believe that adults too, like children, wander about this earth in a daze and, like children, do not know where they come from or where they are going, act as rarely as they do according to genuine motives, and are as thoroughly governed as they are by biscuits and cake and the rod.”

“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.”

“Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.”

“I nothing had, and yet enough for youth--Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion,--O, give me back my youth again!”

“There is no art in turning a goddess into a witch, a virgin into a whore, but the opposite operation, to give dignity to what has been scorned, to make the degraded disireable, that calls for art or for character”

“Whenever I hear people talking about "liberal ideas," I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.”

“Wilhelm, sind das Phantomen, wenn es uns wohl wird?”

“Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,because the mass man will mock it right away.I praise what is truly alive,what longs to be burned to death.In the calm water of the love-nights,where you were begotten, where you have begotten,a strange feeling comes over you,when you see the silent candle burning.Now you are no longer caughtin the obsession with darkness,and a desire for higher love-makingsweeps you upward.Distance does not make you falter.Now, arriving in magic, flying,and finally, insane for the light,you are the butterfly and you are gone.And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow,you are only a troubled gueston the dark earth.”

“Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.”

“The deed is everything; the fame is nothing.”

“A clever man commits no minor blunders.”

“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”

“We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.”

“I was oppressed with the sensations I then felt; I sunk under the weight of them.”

“I am contented, happy, and consequently a bad historian.”

“He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”

“Whatever is the lot of humankindI want to taste within my deepest self.I want to seize the highest and the lowest,to load its woe and bliss upon my breast,and thus expand my single self titanicallyand in the end go down with all the rest.”

“A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself; it is a child of solitude.”

“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.”

“Närrisch, dass jeder in seinem FalleSeine besondere Meinung preist!Wenn Islam Gott ergeben heißt,Im Islam leben und sterben wir alle!”

“Everyone is deceived in his hopes, cheated in his expectations.”

“To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.”

“Mußte denn das so sein, daß das, was des Menschen Glückseligkeit macht,wieder die Quelle seines Elendes würde?”

“You are aware of only one unrest;Oh, never learn to know the other!Two souls, alas, are dwelling in my breast,And one is striving to forsake its brother.Unto the world in grossly loving zest,With clinging tendrils, one adheres;The other rises forcibly in questOf rarefied ancestral spheres.If there be spirits in the airThat hold their sway between the earth and sky,Descend out of the golden vapors thereAnd sweep me into iridescent life.Oh, came a magic cloak into my handsTo carry me to distant lands,I should not trade it for the choicest gown,Nor for the cloak and garments of the crown.”

“Leap and the net will appear.”

“Es ist ein großer Unterschied, ob ich lese zum Genuss und Belebung oder zur Erkenntnis und Belehrung.”

“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”

“Neşe ile ızdırapla, Düşünce ile dolu iken, Tükenmez ezalar içinde, Ümitler, tereddütler geçirirken Kederler içinde yoğurulurken Mesut olan, Ancak seven ruhtur.”

“The more one knows, the more one comprehends, the more one realizes that everything turns in a circle.”

“So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else. ”

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

“More light!”

“Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.”

“Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.”

“Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!”

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

“The finished man, you know, is difficult to please;a growing mind will ever show you gratitude.--Faust 1, lines 182-3”

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”

“F.: Du nennst dich einen Theil und stehst doch ganz vor mir?M.:Bescheidne Wahrheit sprech' ich dir.Wenn sich der Mensch, die kleine Narrenwelt,Gewöhnlich für ein Ganzes hält;Ich bein ein Theli des Theils, der Anfangs alles war,Ein Theil der Finsterniß, die sich das Licht gebar,Das stolze Licht, das nun der Mutter NachtDan alten Rang, den Raum ihr streitig macht,Und doch gelingts ihm nicht da es, so viel es strebt,Verhaftet an den Körpern klebt.Von Körpern strömt's, die Körper macht es schön,Ein Körper hemmt's auf seinem Gange,So, hoff' ich, dauert es nicht langeUnd mit den Körpern wirds zu Grunde gehn.”

“Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint!Unde das mit Recht; denn alles was entstehtist werth daß es zu Grunde geht;Drum besser wär's daß nichts entstünde.So ist denn alles was ihr Sünde,Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt,Mein eigentliches Element.”

“Beware of her fair hair, for she excelsAll women in the magic of her locks; And when she winds them round a young man's neck, She will not ever set him free again.”

“Error is related to truth as sleeping is to waking. I have observed that when one has been in error, one turns to truth as though revitalized.”