Quote

Names are but noise and smoke, Obscuring heavenly light.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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
Names
Light
Obscuring
Heavenly
Noise
Smoke

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Image
We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out discretion, and so disappears the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Art is constitutive-the artist determines beauty. He does not take it over.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
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
Image
Age does not make us childish, as some say it finds us true children.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Zweck sein selbst ist jegliches Tier. Each animal is an end in itself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
To the world you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world. Kindness is the golden chain by which our world is bound together.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
What you have inherited from your forefathers, it takes work to make it your own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an atmosphere about which we still know nothing at all.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes. It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these pages of the book of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Properly speaking, such work is never finished one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
It used to happen, and still happens, to me to take no pleasure in a work of art at the first sight of it, because it is too much for me but if I suspect any merit in it, I try to get at it and then I never fail to make the most gratifying discoveries--to find new qualities in the work itself and new faculties in myself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and can seize and use them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe