The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings Quotes

“The things I know, every man can know, but, oh, my heart is mine alone!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“Human nature," I continued, "has its limitations. It can bear joy and suffering, and pain to a certain degree, but perishes when this point is passed. Here there can therefore be no question of whether a man is strong or weak, but of whether he can endure his suffering, be it moral or physical. And I find it just as astonishing to say that a man who takes his own life is a coward, as it would be improper to call a man a coward who dies of a pernicious fever.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“A human being needs only a small plot of ground on which to be happy, and even less to lie beneath.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“Distance is like the future. A vast twilit entity lies before us, our perception is lost in it and becomes as blurred as our eyesight, and we yearn, ah, we yearn to surrender all of our Self and let ourselves be filled to the brim with a single, tremendous, magnificent emotion, but alas… when we hurry to the spot, when There becomes Here, everything is as it was before and we are left standing in our poverty and constraint, our souls longing for the balm that has eluded us.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“I have so much, yet my feeling for her devours it all. I have so much, yet without her all of it is nothing.”
― Elisabeth Krimmer, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“Si notre coeur était toujours ouvert au bien que Dieu nous
envoie chaque jour, nous aurions alors assez de force pour supporter le
mal quand il se présente.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“Naturalists tell of a noble race of horses that instinctively open a vein with their teeth, when heated and exhausted by a long course, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein, to procure for myself everlasting liberty.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“you are certainly wrong when you classify suicide—and suicide is what we are talking about—as any sort of great achievement, since it can be defined only as a sign of weakness. For it is certainly easier to die than to stand up to a life of torment.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings

“[...] 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.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings