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)
Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.
He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth an inhabited garden.
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.
The greatest genius will never be worth much if he is not also the greatest worker.
Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity fleeting.
By self-knowledge, one can learn to know others.
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
The truly wise man is he who knows that he knows nothing.
Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, always serious, always severe; she is always right, and the errors and faults are always ours.
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
The greatest happiness of man is to be able to live in the present, to be free from the past, and to be without fear of the future.
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
Only those who know how to love are truly alive.
The beautiful is a manifestation of secret laws of nature, which, but for this appearance, would have remained eternally concealed from us.
Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
The human being is a being of contradictions.
The more we know, the more we are able to forgive.
What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
Contemporaries of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832).