Johann Wolfgang von Goethe citations
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Johann Wolfgang Goethe , né le 28 août 1749 à Francfort et mort le 22 mars 1832 à Weimar, est un romancier, dramaturge, poète, théoricien de l'art et homme d'État allemand, passionné par les sciences, notamment l'optique, la géologie et la botanique, et grand administrateur.

✵ 28. août 1749 – 22. mars 1832   •   Autres noms Johann W. von Goethe, Goethe, Иоганн Вольфганг фон Гёте, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Zitat, Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe photo
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 196   citations 0   J'aime

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe citations célèbres

“De ce lieu et de ce jour date une nouvelle ère dans l'histoire du monde et vous pourrez dire : J'y étais!”

Après la bataille de Valmy , première victoire de la Nation naissante contre ses ennemis.

“Aie confiance en toi-même, et tu sauras vivre.”

Faust, 1808 et 1832

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Citations

“À vrai dire, la tolérance ne devrait être qu'une attitude temporaire : elle doit conduire à la reconnaissance. Souffrir autrui, c'est l'outrager.”

Toleranz sollte eigentlich nur eine vorübergehende Gesinnung sein : sie muß zur Anerkennung führen. Dulden heißt beleidigen.
de
Maximes et Réflexions, 1833

“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

“In art the best is good enough.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe livre Italian Journey

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)

“Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.”

Maxim 739, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“There is strong shadow where there is much light.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Götz von Berlichingen

Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.
Götz von Berlichingen, Act I (1773)

“Fair I was also, and that was my ruin.”

Schön war ich auch, und das war mein Verderben.
A Prison
Faust, Part 1 (1808)

“No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe livre Elective Affinities

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

“A useless life is an early death.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Iphigenia in Tauris

Ein unnütz Leben ist ein früher Tod...
Act I, sc. ii
Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787)

“My son, whoever wishes to keep a secret, must hide from us that he possesses one. Self complaisance over the concealed destroys its concealment.”

Bk. I, Ch. 5 http://books.google.com/books?id=q4JKAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Whoever+wishes+to+keep+a+secret+must+hide+from+us+that+he+possesses+one%22&pg=PA73#v=onepage
Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre (Journeyman Years) (1821–1829)

“Everything that liberates our mind without at the same time imparting self-control is pernicious.”

Maxim 504, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: Everything that emancipates the spirit without giving us control over ourselves is harmful.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“The deed is everything, the glory nothing.”

Act IV, A High Mountain Range
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

“Modern poets put a lot of water into their ink.”

Neuere Poeten tun viel Wasser in die Tinte.
Maxim 749, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: Modern poets mix a lot of water with their ink.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“The Eternal Feminine draws us on.”

Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
Act V, Heaven, last line
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

“I love those who yearn for the impossible.”

Act II, Classical Walpurgis Night
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

“Smoking stupefies a man, and makes him incapable of thinking or writing. It is only fit for idlers, people who are always bored, who sleep for a third of their lifetime, fritter away another third in eating, drinking, and other necessary or unnecessary affairs, and don’t know—though they are always complaining that life is so short—what to do with the rest of their time. Such lazy Turks find mental solace in handling a pipe and gazing at the clouds of smoke that they puff into the air; it helps them to kill time. Smoking induces drinking beer, for hot mouths need to be cooled down. Beer thickens the blood, and adds to the intoxication produced by the narcotic smoke. The nerves are dulled and the blood clotted. If they go on as they seem to be doing now, in two or three generations we shall see what these beer-swillers and smoke-puffers have made of Germany. You will notice the effect on our literature—mindless, formless, and hopeless; and those very people will wonder how it has come about. And think of the cost of it all! Fully 25,000,000 thalers a year end in smoke all over Germany, and the sum may rise to forty, fifty, or sixty millions. The hungry are still unfed, and the naked unclad. What can become of all the money? Smoking, too, is gross rudeness and unsociability. Smokers poison the air far and wide and choke every decent man, unless he takes to smoking in self-defence. Who can enter a smoker’s room without feeling ill? Who can stay there without perishing?”

Heinrich Luden, Rueckblicke in mein Leben, Jena 1847
Attributed

“They abandon themselves credulously to every fanatic scoundrel who speaks to their baser qualities, confirms them in their vices, teaches them nationality means barbarism and isolation.”

Attributed to Goethe by German novelist Thomas Mann in his novel The Beloved Returns. The line was Mann's invention, though it was later quoted during the Nuremburg trials by prosecutor Sir Hartley Shawcross, who quoted the passage as if it truly had been written by Goethe.
Misattributed
Source: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.act2080.0051.419 Thomas Mann in America

“All perishable is but an allegory.”

Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.
Variant translation: All that is transitory is but a metaphor.
Act V, Chorus mysticus, last sentence, immediately before:
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

“Scientific knowledge helps us mainly because it makes the wonder to which we are called by nature rather more intelligible.”

Die Wissenschaft hilft uns vor allem, daß sie das Staunen, wozu wir von Natur berufen find.
Maxim 417, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“Seeking with the soul the land of the Greeks.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Iphigenia in Tauris

Act I, sc. i
Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787)

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