Goethe Quotes

“15"General ideas and great conceit are always a fair way to bring about terrible misfortune.”

“Upon the publication of Goethe’s epic drama, the Faustian legend had reached an almost unapproachable zenith. Although many failed to appreciate, or indeed, to understand this magnum opus in its entirety, from this point onward his drama was the rule by which all other Faust adaptations were measured. Goethe had eclipsed the earlier legends and became the undisputed authority on the subject of Faust in the eyes of the new Romantic generation. To deviate from his path would be nothing short of blasphemy.”

“Dandies, who – as you know - scorn all emotions as being beneath them, and do not believe, like that simpleton Goethe, that astonishment can ever be a proper feeling for the human mind.”

“Art is bad when ‘you see the intent and get put off.’ (Goethe) In Tolstoy one is unaware of the intent, and sees only the thing itself. from the book, On Retranslating A Russian Classic Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy”

“Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him and that all merely exists for his sake.”

“We can redeem anyone who strives unceasingly.”

“When an idea is wanting a word can always be found to take its place.”

“Who does not know another language does not know his own.”

“The society of women is the foundation of good manners.”

“Most people work the greater part of their time for a mere living and the little freedom which remains to them so troubles them that they use every means of getting rid of it.”