Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

“Unqualified activity, of whatever kind, leads at last to bankruptcy.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“It is much easier to die than to bear a life of misery with fortitude.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“My father, my father, and dost thou not hear
The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?
'Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;
Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,
My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“einen offenen, treuherzigen Menschen.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Delphi Saemtliche Werke von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Snow is false purity.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Men get out of countenance with themselves and others because they treat the means as the end, and so, from sheer doing, do nothing, or, perhaps, just what they would have avoided.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Distance, my friend, is like futurity. A dim vastness is spread before our souls: the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as those of our vision; and we desire earnestly to surrender up our whole being, that it may be filled with the complete and perfect bliss of one glorious emotion. 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. So does the restless traveller pant for his native soil, and find in his own cottage, in the arms of his wife, in the affections of his children, and in the labour necessary for their support, that happiness which he had sought in vain through the wide world.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“All learned professors and doctors are agreed that children do not comprehend the cause of their desires; but that the grown-up should wander about this earth like children, without knowing whence they come, or whither they go, influenced as little by fixed motives, but guided like them by biscuits, sugar-plums, and the rod,  —  this is what nobody is willing to acknowledge; and yet I think it is palpable.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Opponents fancy they refute us when they repeat their own opinion and pay no attention to ours.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The spectators were expressing their sympathy in various ways, when, the officers of law having finished their ceremonial, the cart went on; and Wilhelm, who took a deep interest in the fate of the lovers, hastened forward by a foot path to get some acquaintance with the Amtmann before the procession should arrive.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“So lived these two fathers, often meeting to take counsel about their common concerns. On the day we are speaking of, it had been determined to send Wilhelm out from home, for the despatch of some commercial affairs.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“This sally somewhat nettled Wilhelm; but he concealed his sentiments, remembering that Werner used to listen with composure to his apostrophes.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I can promise you, if you would rightly apply your poetic view, my goddess might be represented as an invincible, victorious queen, and boldly opposed to yours. It is true, she bears the olive rather than the sword: dagger or chain she knows not.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“This version of “Meister,” with whatever faults it may have,”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“except a few phrases and sentences, not in all amounting to a page, which I have dropped as evidently unfit for the English taste,”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“. In many points, both literary and moral, I could have wished devoutly that he had not written as he has done;”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“All the knowledge I possess every one else can acquire, but my heart is exclusively my own.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe Ultimate Collection 350+ Works All Poetry, Poems, Prose, Letters, Travels, Rarities

“It is a false compliance with the multitude to raise in them emotions which they wish, when these are not emotions which they ought, to feel.”   “Whoever”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe Ultimate Collection 350+ Works All Poetry, Poems, Prose, Letters, Travels, Rarities

“Seit der Zeit bin ich oft draußen.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Delphi Saemtliche Werke von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“O Bestimmung des Menschen!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Delphi Saemtliche Werke von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Es ist ein einförmiges Ding um das Menschengeschlecht.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Delphi Saemtliche Werke von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe