Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

625 Sourced Quotes

No, no! The devil is an egotist,
And is not apt, without why or wherefore,
"For God's sake," others to assist.
In German: Nein, nein! Der Teufel ist ein Egoist Und thut nicht leicht um Gottes Willen, Was einem Andern nutzlich ist.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
She tosses her creatures out of nothingness, and tells them not whence they came, nor whither they go. It is their business to run, she knows the road.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Seeking and blundering are good, for it is only by seeking and blundering we learn.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How useful it is to write; For what one has, in black and white, One carries home and then goes through it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Man usually believes, if only words he hears,
That also with them goes material for thinking.
In German: Gewohnlich glaubt der Mensch, wenn er nur Worte hort, Es musse sich dabei doch auch was denken.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Content without method leads to fantasy; method without content to empty sophistry; matter without form to unwieldy crudition, form without matter to hollow speculation.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When I err every one can see it, but not when I lie.
In German: Wenn ich irre kann es jeder bemerken; wenn ich luge, nicht.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion.
Variant translation: I feel what makes the poet, a full heart, filled entirely with one emotion

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The supreme achievement would be to see that stating a fact is starting a theory.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Science helps us before all things in this, that it somewhat lightens the feeling of wonder with which Nature fills us; then, however, as life becomes more and more complex, it creates new facilities for the avoidance of what would do us harm and the promotion of what will do us good.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A mind, once formed, is never suited after,
One yet in growth will ever grateful be.
In German: Wer fertig ist, dem ist nichts recht zu machen, Ein Werdender wird immer dankbar sein.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Each traveler should know what he has to see, and what properly belongs to him, on a journey.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The words you've bandied are sufficient;
'Tis deeds that I prefer to see.
In German: Der Worte sind genug gewechselt, Lasst mich auch endlich Thaten sehn.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The contemplation of the architecture of the universe in the infinitely great and infinitely little of which it is composed, leads us inevitably to the conclusion that at the bottom of the whole an idea lies, according to which God in nature, and nature in God from eternity to eternity, works and shapes forth all things.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It matters little whether a man be mathematically or philologically or artistically cultivated, so he be but cultivated.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Smoothly and lightly the golden seed by the furrow is covered.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To understand the phenomena of colour nothing is required but unbiased observation and a sound head, but these are scarcer than folks imagine.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In science the treatment is nothing, and all the effect lies in the discovery.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Water its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ethics are not the result of reflection; they are beautiful nature, created and innate. In a greater or lesser degree they are Nature's gift to all; in a high degree they belong to a few highly-gifted minds.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A plant is like a self-willed man, out of whom we can obtain all which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What reason would grope for in vain, spontaneous impulse ofttimes achieves at a stroke, with light and pleasureful guidance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If the word is not dead when it reaches the hearer, he murders it at once by a contradiction, a stipulation, a condition, a digression, an interruption, and all the thousand tricks of conversation.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe