Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes - page 5

All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticeable manner; it is supposed to make us aware of what it would be valuable to instruct ourselves in; we must deduce the lesson on our own, just as with life. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Should I not be proud, when for twenty years I have had to admit to myself that the great Newton and all the mathematicians and noble calculators along with him were involved in a decisive error with respect to the doctrine of color, and that I among millions was the only one who knew what was right in this great subject of nature? View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Two souls alas! dwell in my breast. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ah, how often I've cursed those foolish pages, That showed my youthful sufferings to everyone! If Werther had been my brother, and I'd killed him, His sad ghost could hardly have persecuted me more. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
America, you have it better than our continent, the old one. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is the intermixing of different genres. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A world without love would be no world. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though she were still in love. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When young, one is confident to be able to build palaces for mankind, but when the time comes one has one's hands full just to be able to remove their trash. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One must be something in order to do something. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence - this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
For I have been a man, and that means to have been a fighter. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wherever a man may happen to turn, whatever a man may undertake, he will always end up by returning to the path which nature has marked out for him. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Live dangerously and you live right. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To create something you must be something. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes. View quote
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe