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A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Age: 82 †
Born: 1749
Born: August 22
Died: 1832
Died: March 22
Aphorist
Art Critic
Art Theorist
Autobiographer
Botanist
Composer
Diarist
Diplomat
Jurist
Lawyer
Librarian
Librettist
Literary
Frankfurt/Main
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Goethe
goethe
johann wolfgang von goethe
joh. wolfg. von goethe
j. w. von goethe
Shows
Beloved
Tiring
Back
Draw
Lanterns
Without
Presence
Swiftly
Nothing
Draws
Slide
Make
Mere
Slides
Love
Magic
Haste
Life
Show
Tire
Next
Pushing
Lantern

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Everything that we call Invention or Discovery in the higher sense of the word is the serious exercise and activity of an original feeling for truth, which, after a long course of silent cultivation, suddenly flashes out into fruitful knowledge.
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Life's objective is life itself.
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The eternal female draws us onward.
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Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.
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Do thine own task, and be therewith content.
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The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.
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At the end of life thoughts hitherto impossible come to the collected mind, like good spirits which let themselves down from the shining heights of the past.
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For to give is the business of the rich. [Lat., Denn Geben ist Sache des Reichen.]
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How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new-- Important matter yet attractive too? [Ger., Wie machen wir's, dass alles frisch und neu Und mit Bedeutung auch gefallig sei?]
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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.
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Beauty vanishes virtue is lasting.
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Are we not also married to conscience which we would love to get rid of often enough since it is more bothersome than a man or a woman ever could become?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Still this planet's soil for noble deeds grants scope abounding.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.
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If all these devils really exist it proves there must be angels, too.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Since I have heard often enough that everyone in the end has his own religion, nothing seemed more natural to me than to fashion my own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I have found among my papers a sheet . . . in which I call architecture frozen music.
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Of the book of books most wondrous is the tender book of love.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away and leave no trace behind! How few yield any fruit,--and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe