Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the chief matter. Action can only be only understood and represented by the spirit.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Better
Chief
Matter
Chiefs
Something
Understood
Good
Words
Action
Spirit
Cannot
Represented
Best
Explained
More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an atmosphere about which we still know nothing at all.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A joy shared is a joy doubled.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The soul-stirring image of death is no bugbear to the sage, and is looked on without despair by the pious. It teaches the former to live, and it strengthens the hopes of the latter in salvation in the midst of distress. Death is new life to both.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Only that type of story deserves to be called moral that shows us that one has the power within oneself to act, out of the conviction that there is something better, even against one's own inclination.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
On every mountain height is rest.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, Were he living I would make him a king but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The trouble is small, the fun is great. [Ger., Die Muh'ist klein, der Spass ist gross.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
