Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

I'm gazing at church and palace, ruin and column,
Like a serious man making sensible use of a journey,
But soon it will happen, and all will be one vast temple,
Love's temple, receiving its new initiate.
Though you're a whole world, Rome, still, without Love,
The world isn't the world, and Rome can't be Rome.

if only these treasures were not so fragile as they are precious and beautiful.

A dim vastness is spread before our souls; the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as those of our vision... But alas! when we have attained our object, when the distant 'there' becomes the present 'here,' all is changed; we are as poor and circumscribed as ever, and our souls still languish for unattainable happiness.

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

Die Wissenschaft hilft uns vor allem, daß sie das Staunen, wozu wir von Natur berufen find.

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.

Der Handelnde ist immer gewissenlos; es hat niemand Gewissen als der Betrachtende.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

Wer Recht behalten will und hat nur eine Zunge,<br

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.

At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.

Wenn mancher sich nicht verpflichtet fühlte, das Unwahre zu wiederholen, weil er’s einmal gefügt hat, fo wären es ganz andere Leute geworden.

In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!

People have to become really bad before they care for nothing but mischief, and delight in it.

I bid the chords sweet music make,
And all must follow in my wake.