Quote

One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands so seldom of others the impossible, but demands just that of the portraitists.

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
Never
Seldom
Demands
Satisfied
Demand
Impossible
Others
Pitied
Persons
Portrait
Always
Portraits

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Image
Character is constructed amidst the tempests of the World
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
So, lively brisk old fellow, don't let age get you down. White hairs or not, you can still be a lover.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
To tremble before anticipated evils is to bemoan what thou hast never lost.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Everyone only hears what he understands.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The miller believes that all the wheat grows so that his mill keeps running.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who made mankind and knows how to round off the corners.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Lose the day loitering, 'twill be the same story To-morrow, and the next more dilatory, For indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! What you can do, or think you can, begin it! Only engage, and then the mind grows heated Begin it, and the work will be completed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
The hardest thing is to see what's under your very eyes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
Most pioneers are at the mercy of doubt at the beginning, whether of their worth, of their theories, or of the whole enigmatic field in which they labour.
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
The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Image
What is the universal? The single case. What is the particular? Millions of cases.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe