“The fashion of this world passeth away and I would fain occupy myself with the things that are abiding.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quoted in the Preface to The Works of Francis Rabelais (1931), Albert Jay Nock and Catherine R. Wilson (Eds.)
Attributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The fashion of this world passeth away and I would fain occupy myself with the things that are abiding." by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 185

German writer, artist, and politician 1749–1832

Related quotes

“This poor world, the object of so much insane attachment, we are about to leave; it is but misery, vanity, and folly; a phantom, — the very fashion of which "passeth away."”

François Fénelon (1651–1715) Catholic bishop

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 206.

“Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“Poetry is everlasting. It is not going away. But it has never occupied a sizeable part of the world's business, and it never will.”

A.R. Ammons (1926–2001) American poet

Paris Review interview (1996)

“After all this running away from finished things, I ran into myself as a finished thing. And I’m still running away from finished things.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Después de tanto huir de las cosas hechas, me he encontrado yo mismo una cosa hecha. Y sigo huyendo de las cosas hechas.
Voces (1943)

“I finally felt myself lifted definitively away on the winds of adventure toward worlds I envisaged would be stranger than they were, into situations I imagined would be much more normal than they turned out to be.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Source: The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey

“I think that my job is to observe people and the world, and not to judge them. I always hope to position myself away from so-called conclusions. I would like to leave everything wide open to all the possibilities in the world.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

“I have torn myself away from pursuing mendicancy in totality to be a part of this world.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

2011, Interview with C. S. S. Latha, 2011
Context: I am not religious. I go to the temple on the Gujarat New Year day. I can't claim to be spiritual because it's a very profound epithet. But, I like it when I get to read or hear anything related to the spiritual world. I have been practicing yoga and meditation for many years. Detachment is something I believe in practising for my spiritual self. In fact, with great difficulty, I have torn myself away from pursuing mendicancy in totality to be a part of this world. The call of the Himalayas has been put on the back burner. When the time is right, it is like crossing from one room to the other for me. You will be surprised to know that despite having lived in this house for 10 years now, until of late, I didn't even know how the entire house looked. I only used spaces like my office, bedroom, dining room and the study. Only when recently there was a move to relocate my library did I take a tour of the rest of the building. That is what I mean by detachment. And, what makes me angry? That's the problem. I don't get angry, but have to enact anger in order to get work done.