In 1774, at the age of 25, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe became a literary celebrity after writing his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe was quoted from and respected by many great thinkers throughout history including Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann. Goethe's poems were also set to music by a number of great composers, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, and Gustav Mahler.
In these pages you will find a unique, useful and instructive collection of quotations conveniently arranged from shortest to longest in length. You will not fail to be inspired and challenged as Goethe's mind makes careful observations into the human condition and the universe we find ourselves living in.
Here is the beginning of the collection starting with the shortest of his sayings:
1. In love all is risk.
2. The world is a prison.
3. Wisdom is only in truth.
4. ’Tis life itself to love.
5. Joy shared is joy doubled.
6. Draw thyself from thyself.
7. Here or nowhere is America.
8. Stupidity is without anxiety.
9. The little man is still a man.
10. What’s fitting, that is right.
11. Nothing is endless but inanity.
12. All battle is misunderstanding.
13. A word sooner wounds than heals.
14. I do not need philosophy at all.
15. The world remains ever the same.
16. To live long is to outlive much.
17. Glänzendes Elend—Shining misery.
18. A useless life is an early death.
19. Mastery passes often for egotism.
20. Originality provokes originality.
21. Gedenke zu leben—Think of living.
22. Lovers are as punctual as the sun.
23. Method will teach you to win time.
24. Nature alone knows what she means.
25. Thou art in the end what thou art.
26. Joy must have sorrow; sorrow, joy.
27. We are too good for pure instinct.
28. All is influence except ourselves.
29. Nothing is true but what is simple.
30. Law is powerful, necessity more so.
31. By seeking and blundering we learn.
32. See, what is good lies by thy side.
33. Who trusts in God fears not his rod.
34. Glück macht Mut—Luck inspires pluck.
35. What I cannot praise I speak not of.
36. Religion is not an end, but a means.
37. Within us all a universe doth dwell.
38. The mind must not yield to the body.
39. A man hears only what he understands.
40. All faults are properly shortcomings.
Spend as many days as you choose with Goethe in this one-of-a-kind comprehensive collection. You will want to listen again and again at the clearness of his expressions on life's beautiful facets. A BONUS section is included of 59 in-depth excerpts of excellence, such as:
1438. To look at things as well as we can, to inscribe them in our memory, to be observant, and let no day pass without gathering something; then to apply one’s self to those branches of knowledge which give the mind a sure direction, to apportion everything its place, to assign to everything its value (in my opinion a genuine philosophy and a fundamental mathesis), this is what we have now to do.
1439. That thought I regard as true which is fruitful to myself, which is connected with the rest of my thoughts, and at the same time helps me on. Now it is not only possible, but natural, that such a thought should not connect itself with the mind of another, nor help him on … consequently he will regard it as false. Once we are thoroughly convinced of this, we shall never enter upon controversies.
In these pages you will find a unique, useful and instructive collection of quotations conveniently arranged from shortest to longest in length. You will not fail to be inspired and challenged as Goethe's mind makes careful observations into the human condition and the universe we find ourselves living in.
Here is the beginning of the collection starting with the shortest of his sayings:
1. In love all is risk.
2. The world is a prison.
3. Wisdom is only in truth.
4. ’Tis life itself to love.
5. Joy shared is joy doubled.
6. Draw thyself from thyself.
7. Here or nowhere is America.
8. Stupidity is without anxiety.
9. The little man is still a man.
10. What’s fitting, that is right.
11. Nothing is endless but inanity.
12. All battle is misunderstanding.
13. A word sooner wounds than heals.
14. I do not need philosophy at all.
15. The world remains ever the same.
16. To live long is to outlive much.
17. Glänzendes Elend—Shining misery.
18. A useless life is an early death.
19. Mastery passes often for egotism.
20. Originality provokes originality.
21. Gedenke zu leben—Think of living.
22. Lovers are as punctual as the sun.
23. Method will teach you to win time.
24. Nature alone knows what she means.
25. Thou art in the end what thou art.
26. Joy must have sorrow; sorrow, joy.
27. We are too good for pure instinct.
28. All is influence except ourselves.
29. Nothing is true but what is simple.
30. Law is powerful, necessity more so.
31. By seeking and blundering we learn.
32. See, what is good lies by thy side.
33. Who trusts in God fears not his rod.
34. Glück macht Mut—Luck inspires pluck.
35. What I cannot praise I speak not of.
36. Religion is not an end, but a means.
37. Within us all a universe doth dwell.
38. The mind must not yield to the body.
39. A man hears only what he understands.
40. All faults are properly shortcomings.
Spend as many days as you choose with Goethe in this one-of-a-kind comprehensive collection. You will want to listen again and again at the clearness of his expressions on life's beautiful facets. A BONUS section is included of 59 in-depth excerpts of excellence, such as:
1438. To look at things as well as we can, to inscribe them in our memory, to be observant, and let no day pass without gathering something; then to apply one’s self to those branches of knowledge which give the mind a sure direction, to apportion everything its place, to assign to everything its value (in my opinion a genuine philosophy and a fundamental mathesis), this is what we have now to do.
1439. That thought I regard as true which is fruitful to myself, which is connected with the rest of my thoughts, and at the same time helps me on. Now it is not only possible, but natural, that such a thought should not connect itself with the mind of another, nor help him on … consequently he will regard it as false. Once we are thoroughly convinced of this, we shall never enter upon controversies.
