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“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

“Investigate what is, and not what pleases.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Der Versuch als Vermittler von Objekt und Subjekt

Untersuchen was ist, und nicht was behagt
Der Versuch als Vermittler von Objekt und Subjekt (The Attempt as Mediator of Object and Subject) (1792)

“As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also attributed to Charles V.
Attributed

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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.

“Knowst thou the land where the lemon trees bloom,
Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom,
Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows,
And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose?”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Bk. III, Ch. 1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)

“Not to keep from error, is the duty of the educator of men, but to guide the erring one, even to let him swill his error out of full cups — that is the wisdom of teachers. Whoever merely tastes of his error, will keep house with it for a long time, … but whoever drains it completely will have to get to know it.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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)

“I am more and more convinced that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. … I therefore like to look about me in foreign nations, and advise everyone to do the same. National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Conversations with Eckermann (entry for 31 January 1827)

“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Behaviour is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maxim 39, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“He who does not speak foreign languages knows nothing about his own.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.
Maxim 91
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Though you're a whole world, Rome, still, without Love,
The world isn't the world, and Rome can't be Rome.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Roman Elegies

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.

“Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Iphigenia in Tauris

Act IV, sc. iv
Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787)

“Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look round.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Elective Affinities

Bk. II, Ch. 4
Elective Affinities (1809)

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Attributed

“He alone is great and happy who fills his own station of independence, and has neither to command nor to obey.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Götz von Berlichingen

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.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Faust

Act I, A Spacious Hall
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

“O'er all the hilltops
Is quiet now,
In all the treetops
Hearest thou
Hardly a breath;
The birds are asleep in the trees:
Wait; soon like these
Thou too shalt rest.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Wanderer's Nightsong

Wandrers Nachtlied (Wanderer's Nightsong)

“The message well I hear, my faith alone is weak”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Faust

Die Botschaft hör ich wohl, allein, mir fehlt der Glaube
Faust's Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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)