Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Germany's greatest writer, Faust
Most quoted
"The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered with books. The books are written in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it dimly comprehends but does not understand."
— from Conversations with Eckermann
"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint... but in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."
— from Attributed (often misattributed to C.S. Lewis, but reflects a similar sentiment found in Goethe's critiques of bureaucracy and detached evil)
"The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it."
— from Elective Affinities, 1809
All quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (267)
To know is not enough; we must apply. To be willing is not enough; we must do.
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
Behavior is a mirror in which everyone displays his own image.
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
Everything that is great and wise is in the minority.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
The greatest evil that can befall a man is that he should come to think ill of himself.
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Doubt grows with knowledge.
The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend their lives in a circle, and it takes a lot of education to get them even a little off the track.
Talent develops in solitude, character in the stream of life.
The highest wisdom is to know that we know nothing.
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
Divide and rule, a sound motto; unite and lead, a better one.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
The greatest respect an author can have for his public is not to give them what they want, but to give them what he himself wants.
One must be something in order to do something.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
The human mind is a great thing, but it is not the greatest thing.
Contemporaries of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832).