Quill / Authors / Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 to 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, court official at Weimar and an amateur scientist who wrote on colour and plants. Nearly everything Quill has from him comes from Maxims and Reflections in T. Bailey Saunders's translation, with a line from Faust in Bayard Taylor's.
The maxims read like notes kept over a long, busy life. Some are obscure and some are grumpy. Skim until one catches, and then stop there for the day, since they don't reward being taken in a sitting.
All 54 of the lines in Quill. Only lines checked against a public-domain text appear on this page.
Maxims and Reflections
Read Maxims and Reflections on Project Gutenberg
An old foundation is worthy of all respect, but it must not take from us the right to build afresh wherever we will.
Difficulties increase the nearer we come to our aim.
The things that are true, good, excellent, are simple and always alike, whatever their appearance may be.
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The things that are true, good, excellent, are simple and always alike, whatever their appearance may be. But the error that we blame is extremely manifold and varying; it is in conflict not only with the good and the true, but also with itself; it is self-contradictory. Thus it is that the words of blame in our literature must necessarily outnumber the words of praise.
Character calls forth character.
Our mistake is that we doubt what is certain and want to establish what is uncertain.
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Our mistake is that we doubt what is certain and want to establish what is uncertain. My maxim in the study of Nature is this: hold fast what is certain and keep a watch on what is uncertain.
A rainbow which lasts a quarter of an hour is looked at no more.
Love is a true renovator.
Against the great superiority of another there is no remedy but love.
If you miss the first button-hole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.
A man cannot live with every one, and therefore he cannot live for every one.
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A man cannot live with every one, and therefore he cannot live for every one. To see this truth aright is to place a high value upon one's friends, and not to hate or persecute one's enemies. Nay, there is hardly any greater advantage for a man to gain than to find out, if he can, the merits of his opponents: it gives him a decided ascendency over them.
In contemplation as in action, we must distinguish between what may be attained and what is unattainable.
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In contemplation as in action, we must distinguish between what may be attained and what is unattainable. Without this, little can be achieved, either in life or in knowledge.
Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced.
We may learn to know the world as we please: it will always retain a bright and a dark side.
To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible.
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To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.
Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.
In the world people take a man at his own estimate; but he must estimate himself at something.
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In the world people take a man at his own estimate; but he must estimate himself at something. Disagreeableness is more easily tolerated than insignificance.
Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive.
The greatest piece of good fortune is that which corrects our deficiencies and redeems our mistakes.
Nothing is more highly to be prized than the value of each day.
In every artist there is a germ of daring, without which no talent is conceivable.
What a man does not understand, he does not possess.
You cannot play the flute by blowing alone: you must use your fingers.
The errors of a man are what make him really lovable.
If a man thinks about his physical or moral condition, he generally finds that he is ill.
A man is not deceived by others, he deceives himself.
Certain faults are necessary to the individual if he is to exist.
Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
Not only what is born with him, but also what he acquires, makes the man.
First let a man teach himself, and then he will be taught by others.
We do not learn to know men if they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are.
Let every man ask himself with which of his faculties he can and will somehow influence his age.
Duty: where a man loves what he commands himself to do.
Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
The century advances; but every individual begins anew.
A man must pay dear for his errors if he wishes to get rid of them, and even then he is lucky.
The truest liberality is appreciation.
Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything.
Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.
Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man.
By nothing do men show their character more than by the things they laugh at.
The man who is up and doing should see to it that what he does is right.
Character in matters great and small consists in a man steadily pursuing the things of which he feels himself capable.
We are never further from our wishes than when we fancy we possess the object of them.
A man is really alive only when he delights in the good-will of others.
To a new truth there is nothing more hurtful than an old error.
Unqualified activity, of whatever kind, leads at last to bankruptcy.
A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.
An intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, a wise man hardly anything.
Never by thinking, but by doing.
Friendship can only be bred in practice and be maintained by practice.
We cannot escape a contradiction in ourselves; we must try to resolve it.
To be and remain true to oneself and others, is to possess the noblest attribute of the greatest talents.
The discerning man who acknowledges his limitations is not far off perfection.
Faust, Part 1
Read Faust, Part 1 on Project Gutenberg
Not Art and Science serve, alone; Patience must in the work be shown.
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