Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. His works include: four novels; epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him have survived.
A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August, in 1782 after taking up residence in Weimar in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther . He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's privy council, sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace.Goethe's first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. In 1791 he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, whose plays he premiered until Schiller's death in 1805. During this period Goethe published his second novel, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship; the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama, Faust. His conversations and various shared undertakings throughout the 1790s with Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Johann Gottfried Herder, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and August and Friedrich Schlegel have come to be collectively termed Weimar Classicism.
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer named Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship one of the four greatest novels ever written, while the American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson selected Goethe as one of six "representative men" in his work of the same name . Goethe's comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, notably Johann Peter Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe .
Wikipedia
“Investigate what is, and not what pleases.”
Untersuchen was ist, und nicht was behagt
Der Versuch als Vermittler von Objekt und Subjekt (The Attempt as Mediator of Object and Subject) (1792)
“Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.”
Mephistopheles and the Student
Faust, Part 1 (1808)
Der thörigste von allen Irrthümern ist, wenn junge gute Köpfe glauben, ihre Originalität zu verlieren, indem sie das Wahre anerkennen, was von andern schon anerkannt worden.
Maxim 254, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
As quoted in Human Development : A Science of Growth (1961) by Justin Pikunas, p. 311; this might be based on a translation or paraphrase by Viktor Frankl, to whom it is also sometimes attributed.
:In Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre (Book VIII, Chapter four) Goethe writes:
:“Wenn wir” sagtest Du, “die Menschen nur nehmen, wie sie sind, so machen wir sie schlechter; wenn wir sie behandeln als wären sie, was sie sein sollten, so bringen wir sie dahin, wohin sie zu bringen sind."
:Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe in 14 Bänden, Verlag C. H. Beck München, Herausgegeben von Erich Trunz
: Variant translations:
:*Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
::* As quoted in My Country Vol. 2, No. 3 (September 1968) by Litchfield Historical Society, p. 23
:* "‘When we take people,’ thou wouldst say, ‘merely as they are, we make them worse; when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve them as far as they can be improved.’"
::* This translation occurs in the Harvard Classics edition of Wilhem Meister's Apprenticeship, Book VIII, Chapter IV. Translation by Thomas Carlyle Bartelby Online Edition of 'Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'. http://www.bartleby.com/314/804.html
Disputed
Heinrich Luden, Rueckblicke in mein Leben, Jena 1847
Attributed
Nicht vor Irrthum zu bewahren, ist die Pflicht des Menschen erziehers; sondern den Irrenden zu leiten, ja ihn seinen Irrthum aus vollen Bechern ausschlürfen zu lassen, das ist Weisheit der Lehrer. Wer seinen Irrthum nur kostet, hält lange damit Haus; er freuet sich dessen als eines seltenen Glücks; aber wer ihn ganz erschöpft, der muß ihn kennenlernen.
Bk. VII, Ch. 9
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being.”
Also attributed to Charles V.
Attributed
Conversations with Eckermann (entry for 31 January 1827)
Bk. II, Ch. 4
Elective Affinities (1809)
As quoted by Karl Löwith, From Hegel to Nietzsche: The Revolution in Nineteenth Century Thought (1991) from a letter referring to Sartorius' historical study of the rule of the Ostragoths in Italy
Alles ist einfacher, als man denken kann, zugleich verschränkter, als zu begreifen ist.
Maxim 1209, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: Everything is simpler than we can imagine, at the same time more complex and intertwined than can be comprehended.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Attributed to Goethe by popular British novelist Marie Corelli in her essay "The Spirit of Work" as published in The Queen's Christmas carol : an anthology of poems, stories, essays, drawings and music / by British authors, artists and composers in 1905 by The Daily Mail of London.
Attributed to Goethe by William Hutchinson Murray, in his book The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951), this has been shown to be a misattribution at "German Myth 12: The Famous 'Goethe' Quotation", Answer.com http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth12.htm and "Popular Quotes: Commitment", Goethe Society of North America http://www.goethesociety.org/pages/quotescom.html
Misattributed
Variant: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
Bk. III, Ch. 1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“Behaviour is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.”
Maxim 39, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.”
Der Erlkönig (1782)
Context: Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He holds the boy in the crook of his arm
He holds him safe, he keeps him warm.
“Noble be man,
Helpful and good!
For that alone
Sets hims apart
From every other creature
On earth.”
Das Göttliche (The Divine) (1783)
“The spirits that I summoned up
I now can't rid myself of.”
Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) (1797)
Tränenreiche Männer sind gut. Verlasse mich jeder, der trocknen Herzens, trockner Augen ist!
Bk. I, Ch. 18, R. J. Hollingdale, trans. (1971), p. 147
Elective Affinities (1809)
Act II, The Gothic Chamber
Faust, Part 2 (1832)
“He who does not speak foreign languages knows nothing about his own.”
Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.
Maxim 91
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
"Distichs" in The Poems of Goethe (1853) as translated in the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring
Context: Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others,
And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own.
Not in the morning alone, not only at mid-day he charmeth;
Even at setting, the sun is still the same glorious planet.
Elegy 1
Roman Elegies (1789)
Context: I'm gazing at church and palace, ruin and column,
Like a serious man making sensible use of a journey,
But soon it will happen, and all will be one vast temple,
Love's temple, receiving its new initiate.
Though you're a whole world, Rome, still, without Love,
The world isn't the world, and Rome can't be Rome.
“Who science has and art
He has religion too
Who neither of them owns
Religion is his due.”
Wer Wissenschaft und Kunst besitzt, / Hat auch Religion / Wer jene beiden nicht besitzt / Der habe Religion
As quoted in Jost Lemmerich's "Science and Conscience: The Life of James Franck" (2011), p. 261.
Variant translation: "The man who science has and art, He also has religion. But he who is devoid of both, He surely needs religion." (as quoted in "Homilies of science" by Paul Carus (1892) and The Open Court, Weekly Journal, Vol. II (1887).
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
Letter to Eckermann (4 February 1829)
Epigram 27
Venetian Epigrams (1790)
“Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.”
Act IV, sc. iv
Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787)
So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein!
Alternative translation: So certain is it that he alone is great and happy, who requires neither to command nor to obey, in order to secure his being of some importance in the world.
Götz von Berlichingen, Act I (1773), p. 39
Source: Goethe’s Works, vol. 3, Götz Von Berlichingen (With the Iron Hand) http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2113&layout=html#chapter_164458
Source: Beautiful thoughts from German and Spanish authors, by C. T. Ramage (1868) https://archive.org/stream/beautifulthough00unkngoog#page/n112/mode/2up
“Law is mighty, mightier necessity.”
Act I, A Spacious Hall
Faust, Part 2 (1832)
Wandrers Nachtlied (Wanderer's Nightsong)
“The message well I hear, my faith alone is weak”
Die Botschaft hör ich wohl, allein, mir fehlt der Glaube
Faust's Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)
Der Irrthum verhält sich gegen das Wahre wie der Schlaf gegen das Wachen. Ich habe bemerkt, daß man aus dem Irren sich wie erquickt wieder zu dem Wahren hinwende.
Maxim 331, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
A message to Eckermann on March 11, (1832), translated by Albert Schweizer in Goethe: Five Studies http://archive.is/tOo5z (1961), Beacon Press, p. 56
Maxim 598, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“What is Classical is healthy; what is Romantic is sick.”
Das Klassische nenne ich das Gesunde und das Romantische das Kranke.
Maxim 1031, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Goethe, translated by Thomas Carlyle (1824), cited in: Jürgen Habermas (1989) Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, English ed. p. 12
“Am I a god? I see so clearly!”
Bin ich ein Gott? Mir wird so licht!
Night, Faust in His Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)
Wir sprechen überhaupt viel zu viel. Wir sollten weniger sprechen und mehr zeichnen. Ich meinerseits möchte mir das Reden ganz abgewöhnen und wie die bildende Natur in lauter Zeichnungen fortsprechen.
Attributed to Goethe by Johannes Falk in Goethe aus näherm persönlichen Umgange dargestellt (1832). http://www.literatur-live.de/salon/_falk_goethe.pdf
Attributed
Man sagt: „Studire, Künstler, die Natur!”
Es ist aber keine Kleinigkeit, aus dem Gemeinen das Edle, aus der Unform das Schöne zu entwickeln.
Maxim 191, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Die Welt ist so leer, wenn man nur Berge, Flüsse und Städte darin denkt, aber hie und da jemand zu wissen, der mit uns übereinstimmt, mit dem wir auch stillschweigend fortleben, das macht uns dieses Erdenrund erst zu einem bewohnten Garten.
"Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre," in Goethes Sämmtliche Werke, vol. 7 (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, 1874), p. 520
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“Among all peoples, the Greeks have dreamt life's dream most beautifully.”
Unter allen Völkerschaften haben die Griechen den Traum des Lebens am schönsten geträumt.
Maxim 298, trans. Stopp
Variant translation by Saunders: Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life the best. (189)
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.”
Torquato Tasso, Act I, sc. ii (1790)
Claudine von Villa Bella (1776)
“You really only know when you know little. Doubt grows with knowledge.”
Maxim 281, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: Only when we know little do we know anything. Doubt grows with knowledge.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“Nothing should be treasured more highly than the value of the day.”
Nichts ist höher schätzen als der Werth des Tages.
Maxim 789, trans. Stopp
Variant translation by Saunders: Nothing is more highly to be prized than the value of each day. (332)
Variant translation: Nothing is worth more than this day.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.”
Maxim 715, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Attributed to Zig Ziglar
Misattributed
“One is never satisfied with a portrait of a person that one knows.”
Bk. II, Ch. 2
Elective Affinities (1809)
“Love does not dominate, it cultivates. And that is more.”
Die Liebe herrscht nicht, aber sie bildet; und das ist mehr!
Das Märchen (1795), as translated by Hermann J. Weigand in Wisdom and Experience (1949); also translated elsewhere as The Fairy-Tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily, and simply The Tale]
Variant translations:
Love does not rule; but it trains, and that is more.
As translated by Thomas Carlyle The Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (1832)
Love rules (and reigns) not, but it forms (builds and 'trains'); and that is more!
As quoted in "'Human Immortalities : The Old and the New" by Thaddeus Burr Wakeman, in The Open Court Vol. XX, No. 1 (January 1906), p. 104
Widely attributed to Goethe, but also claimed to be a distortion of a passage by Haim Ginott.
Disputed
Willst du immer weiterschweifen?
Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah.
Lerne nur das Glück ergreifen,
denn das Glück ist immer da.
Variant translation:
Do you wish to roam farther and farther?
See! The Good lies so near.
Only learn to seize good fortune,
For good fortune's always here.
Erinnerung
Elegy 3
Roman Elegies (1789)
“Nothing is more frightful than to see ignorance in action.”
Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit.
Maxim 542, trans. Stopp
Variant translation by Saunders: Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action. (231)
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Maxim 441, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“The first and last thing demanded of genius is love of truth.”
Maxim 382, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Wenn mancher sich nicht verpflichtet fühlte, das Unwahre zu wiederholen, weil er’s einmal gefügt hat, fo wären es ganz andere Leute geworden.
Maxim 586, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“The world is a bell that is cracked: it clatters, but does not ring out clearly.”
Die Welt ist eine Glocke, die einen Riß hat: sie klappert, aber klingt nicht.
Maxim 193, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”
Die Kunst ist lang, das Leben kurz, das Urteil schwierig, die Gelegenheit flüchtig.
Bk. VII, Ch. 9
Cf. Hippocrates, Ars longa vita brevis, Aphorisms 1:1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“In art the best is good enough.”
In der Kunst ist das Beste gut genug.
Italian Journey (March 3, 1787)
“Association with women is the basic element of good manners.”
Der umgang mit frauen ist das element guter sitten.
Maxim 31, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: The society of women is the foundation of good manners.
Variant translative: Intercourse with women is the element of good manners.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
