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Faust
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe citations célèbres
Après la bataille de Valmy , première victoire de la Nation naissante contre ses ennemis.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Citations
Toleranz sollte eigentlich nur eine vorübergehende Gesinnung sein : sie muß zur Anerkennung führen. Dulden heißt beleidigen.
de
Maximes et Réflexions, 1833
“Toute théorie est sèche, et l'arbre précieux de la vie est fleuri.”
Faust, 1808 et 1832
“Qui ne connaît pas de langues étrangères ne sait rien de la sienne.”
Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.
de
Maximes et Réflexions, 1833
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Citations en anglais
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
Variante: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
“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)
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)
“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)
“Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.”
Der Erlkönig (1782)
Contexte: 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)
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
Bk. III, Ch. 1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“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)
Conversations with Eckermann (entry for 31 January 1827)
"Distichs" in The Poems of Goethe (1853) as translated in the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring
Contexte: 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)
Contexte: 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)
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)
