Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!

Man sagt: „Studire, Künstler, die Natur!” Es ist aber keine Kleinigkeit, aus dem Gemeinen das Edle, aus der Unform das Schöne zu entwickeln.

Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient.

Only mankind Can do the impossible: He can distinguish, He chooses and judges, He can give permanence To the moment.

Wenn die Menschen recht schlecht werden, haben sie keinen Anteil mehr als die Schadenfreude.

Mysteries do not as yet amount to miracles.

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

A person who does not know the history of the last 3,000 years wanders in the darkness of ignorance, unable to make sense of the reality around him

I am more and more convinced that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. ... I therefore like to look about me in foreign nations, and advise everyone to do the same. National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.

But who will dare to speak the truth out clear?
The few who anything of truth have learned,
And foolishly did not keep truth concealed,
Their thoughts and visions to the common herd revealed,
Since time began we've crucified and burned

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. Not in the morning alone, not only at mid-day he charmeth; Even at setting, the sun is still the same glorious planet.

The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.

It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.

Nichts ist höher schätzen als der Werth des Tages.

Every situation — nay, every moment — is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.