Quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One is led astray alike by sympathy and coldness, by praise and by blame

If nature is your teacher, your soul will awaken.

A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.

Stones are mute teachers; they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.

Du hast so viele Leben, wie du Sprachen sprichst. (You have as many lives as the number of languages you speak.)

And do I ask, wherefore my heart Falters, oppressed with unknown needs? Why some inexplicable smart All movement of my life impedes? Alas! in living Nature's stead, Where God His human creature set, In smoke and mould the fleshless dead And bones of beasts surround me yet!

A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

Da allora il sole, la luna e le stelle possono continuare tranquillamente il loro corso, io non so se sia giorno o notte, e tutto il mondo svanisce intorno a me.

For only to the extent that we empathize do we have the right to speak about a matter.

Must it be, that what makes for a man's happiness becomes the source for his misery?

Saving Thy Gracious Presence, he to me A long-legged grasshopper appears to be, That springing flies, and flying springs, And in the grass the same old ditty sings. Would he still lay among the grass he grows in! Each bit of dung he seeks, to stick his nose in.

When we have lost ourselves, we have lost everything.

I see no end to my misery but the grave.

I often feel that way, I would like to open one of my veins, to bring me eternal freedom.

Al diablo ahora mismo vendería mi alma si yo no fuese el diablo mismo!

The source of all misery lies concealed within me, as the source of all happiness did formerly.

When glance turns To a sky-blue clear day, When the purplr-red sun Sinks low at sirocco, Here nature bestows glory, Joy, sound to eye and heart, And we find in color lore, The universal truth. - - - GER: Wenn der Blick an heitern Tagen Sich zur Himmelsbläue lenkt, Beim Sirok der Sonnenwagen Purpurrot sich niedersenkt, Da gebt der Natur die Ehre, Froh, an Aug und Herz gesund, Und erkennt der Farbenlehre Allgemeinen, ewigen Grund. Zahme Xenien VI.

There dwells a life in every star; With brother spheres it rolls afar Its self-elected, radiant way. Still throb within the great earth-ball The forces which conduct us all From day to night, from night to day. - - - GER: Das Leben wohnt in jedem Sterne: Er wandelt mit den andern gerne Die selbsterwählte reine Bahn; Im innern Erdenball pulsieren Die Kräfte, die zur Nacht uns führen Und wieder zu dem Tag heran. Zahme Xenien VI.

I have not often seen more natural acting than that of these masks. It is such acting as can only be sustained by a remarkably happy talent and long practice. While I am writing this, they are making a tremendous noise on the canal under my window, though it is past midnight. Whether for good or for evil, they are always doing something.

Thou, Spirit of the Earth, art nearer: Even now my powers are loftier, clearer; I glow, as drunk with new-made wine: New strength and heart to meet the world incite me, The woe of earth, the bliss of earth, invite me, And though the shock of storms may smite me, No crash of shipwreck shall have power to fright me!

I can promise to be sincere, but not to be impartial.

Qué otra cosa es el destino del hombre, más que soportar su medida y apurar su vaso? Y si el cáliz le resultó amargo al Dios del cielo, ¿por qué debo pavonearme como si me agradara? ¿Y por qué debo avergonzarme, cuando toda mi existencia tiembla entre el ser y no ser, cuando el pasado brilla como un rayo sobre el oscuro abismo del futuro y todo a mi alrededor se hunde y el mundo se pierde conmigo?

There is no truer, warmer pleasure in this world than to behold a great soul opening up towards oneself.

Since I have been obliged to associate continually with other people, and observe what they do, and how they employ themselves, I have become far better satisfied with myself.