Quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

El talento se nutre en la soledad; el carácter se forma en las tempestuosas oleadas del mundo.

Man sieht sich leicht an Wald und Feldern satt, Wie anders tragen uns die Geistesfreuden Von Buch zu Buch, von Blatt zu Blatt.

Qué es el hombre, ese semidiós tan ponderado? ¿No le faltan fuerzas en aquello, precisamente, que mas necesita? Bien se deje transportar por la alegría, o abrumar por el dolor, ¿no se halla igualmente detenido, igualmente obligado a reconocer la triste condición de su ser, cuando aspira orgullosamente a engolfarse en la plenitud del infinito?

O welcome, twilight soft and sweet, That breathes throughout this hallowed shrine! Sweet pain of love, bind thou with fetters fleet The heart that on the dew of hope must pine!

Si a un instante le digo alguna vez: -Detente, eres tan bello-, puedes atarme entonces con cadenas y acepto hundirme entonces de buen grado; puede doblar entonces la campana, y libre quedarás de mi servicio: ¡párese allí el reloj con sus agujas! ¡Puede acabar el tiempo para mí!

Nas?l oluyor da insan? mesut eden bir ?ey ayn? zamanda felaketinin de kayna?? oluyor?

Oh, distance is like the future: before our souls lies an entire day and dusky vastness which overwhelms our feelings as it overwhelms our eyes, and ah! we long to surrender the whole of our being, and be filled with all the joy of one single, immense, magnificent emotion. And then, ah! once we hasten onwards, and what lay ahead becomes the here and now, everything is just as it was, and there we are, as poor and confined as ever, our souls longing for the elusive balm.

Thus, book after book, the book of all books would that it was given to us so that we might try to enter there as into a second world, where we lose ourselves, enlighten ourselves, perfect ourselves.

No man is more enslaved than he who falsely thinks he is free.

Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.

It is hard to write, not, as might be expected, for reasons of metre or scholarship or elaborate symbolism, but because the actual writing depends almost entirely on the chance, the mood, the energy, of the moment.

Was gibt uns wohl den schönsten Frieden, Als frei am eignen Glück zu schmieden

Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.

And still you wonder why your heart is anxious and your breast constricted, why a pain you cannot account for inhibits your vitality completely! You are surrounded, not by the living world in which God placed mankind, but, amid smoke and mustiness, only by bones of beasts and of the dead.

O kadar çok kendimle u?ra??yorum, yüre?imde öyle f?rt?nalar esiyor ki, di?er insanlar? kendi hallerinde b?rakmay? ye?liyorum; ke?ke beni de kendi halime b?rakabilseler.

Dear Wilhelm, I have thought a great deal about Man's desire to go out into the world, make new discoveries and go a-wandering, and, on the other hand, about that deep-seated impulse to be contented with limits that are imposed, and gladly to proceed as custom dictates, with no interest in what goes beyond the daily round.

freilich, wäre der Berg nicht da, so wär der Weg viel bequemer und kürzer; er ist nun aber da, und man soll hinüber!

Por qué fatalidad ha sido preciso que lo que hace y constituye la dicha del hombre, sea tan a menudo el origen, y la causa de su infortunio?

I withdraw into myself, and discover a world, albeit a notional world of dark desire rather than one of actuality and vital strength. And everything swims before my senses, and I go my way in the world wearing the smile of the dreamer.

Naturalists tell of a noble race of horses that instinctively open a vein with their teeth, when heated and exhausted by a long course, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein, to procure for myself everlasting liberty.

And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled stranger on the dark earth.

Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exist for his sake.

Así es como echa un loco enamorado por el aire la luna y las estrellas y el sol, para recreo de su amor.

For those ashamed of him Cupid reserves the bitterest passions.