JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE QUOTES

Men's wretchedness in soothe I so deplore,

Not even I would plague the sorry creatures more.

Mephistopheles

Now I have studied philosophy,

medicine and the law,

and unfortunately, theology,

wearily sweating, yet I stand now,

poor fool, no wiser than I was before;

I am called Master, even Doctor,

and for these last ten years have led

my students by the nose--up, down,

crosswise and crooked. Now I see

that we know nothing finally.

Faust

Dear friend, all theory is gray,

And green the golden tree of life.

Mephistopheles

Youth, my good friend, you certainly require

When foes in battle round you press,

When a fair maid, her heart on fire,

Hangs on your neck with fond caress,

When from afar, the victor's crown,

Allures you in the race to run;

Or when in revelry you drown

Your sense, the whirling dance being done.

Merryman

Now spring's reviving glance has freed

the ice from stream and river.

The valley turns green with joy of hope.

Old winter, growing impotent, crawls back

to the rough mountains; as he flees, he hurls

fitful gusts of icy-kerneled sleet

in streaks on the green meadows.

But the sun allows no whiteness;

growth and creation stir and strive

to cover everything with color.

Faust

O full-orb'd moon, did but thy rays

Their last upon mine anguish gaze!

Beside this desk, at dead of night,

Oft have I watched to hail thy light:

Then, pensive friend! o'er book and scroll,

With soothing power, thy radiance stole!

In thy dear light, ah, might I climb,

Freely, some mountain height sublime,

Round mountain caves with spirits ride,

In thy mild haze o'er meadows glide,

And, purged from knowledge-fumes, renew

My spirit, in thy healing dew!

Faust

When in his study pent the whole year through,

Man views the world, as through an optic glass,

On a chance holiday, and scarcely then,

How by persuasion can he govern men?

Wagner

That which issues from the heart alone,

Will bend the hearts of others to your own.

Faust

Ay! what 'mong men as knowledge doth obtain!

Who on the child its true name dares bestow?

The few who somewhat of these things have known,

Who their full hearts unguardedly reveal'd,

Nor thoughts, nor feelings, from the mob conceal'd,

Have died on crosses, or in flames been thrown!

Faust

What a man knows not, he to use requires,

And what he knows, he cannot use for good.

Faust

E'en hell hath its peculiar laws.

Faust

Methinks, by most, 'twill be confess'd

That Death is never quite a welcome guest.

Mephistopheles

Forbear to trifle longer with thy grief,

Which, vulture-like, consumes thee in this den.

Mephistopheles

What lies beyond doesn't worry me.

Suppose you break this world to bits, another may arise.

My joy springs from this earth,

this sun shines on my sorrows.

When I leave here, let come what must.

What do I care about it now, if hereafter

men hate or love, or if in those other spheres

there be an Above or a Below?

Faust

Happy is he who has the pure truth in him.

He will regret no sacrifice that keeps it.

Faust

In the end, you are exactly--what you are.

Put on a wig with a million curls,

put the highest heeled boots on your feet,

yet you remain in the end just what you are.

Mephistopheles

Iphigenia in Tauris (1787)

I feel myself a stranger. For the sea

Doth sever me, alas! from those I love,

And day by day upon the shore I stand,

My soul still seeking for the land of Greece.

Iphigenia

Alas for him! who friendless and alone,

Remote from parents and from brethren dwells;

From him grief snatches every coming joy

Ere it doth reach his lip. His restless thoughts

Revert for ever to his father's halls,

Where first to him the radiant sun unclos'd

The gates of heav'n; where closer, day by day,

Brothers and sisters, leagu'd in pastime sweet,

Around each other twin'd the bonds of love.

Iphigenia

A useless life is but an early death.

Iphigenia

We blame alike, who proudly disregard

Their genuine merit, and who vainly prize

Their spurious worth too highly.

Arkas

He who is used

To act and to command, knows not the art,

From far, with subtle tact, to guide discourse

Through many windings to its destin'd goal.

Arkas

A noble man by woman's gentle word

May oft be led.

Arkas

Oh! be he king or subject, he's most blest,

Who in his home finds happiness and peace.

Thoas

The kindness shown the wicked is not blest.

Thoas

How blest is he who his progenitors

With pride remembers, to the list'ner tells

The story of their greatness, of their deeds,

And, silently rejoicing, sees himself

Link'd to this goodly chain! For the same stock

Bears not the monster and the demigod:

A line, or good or evil, ushers in

The glory or the terror of the world.

Iphigenia

Many a dreadful fate of mortal doom,

And many a deed of the bewilder'd brain,

Dark night doth cover with her sable wing,

Or shroud in gloomy twilight.

Iphigenia

The words of Heaven are not equivocal,

As in despair the poor oppress'd one thinks.

Pylades

The gods require

On this wide earth the service of the good,

To work their pleasure.

Pylades

This is the sharpest sorrow of my lot,

That, like a plague-infected wretch, I bear

Death and destruction hid within my breast;

That, where I tread, e'en on the healthiest spot,

Ere long the blooming faces round betray

The writhing features of a ling'ring death.

Orestes

Love and courage are the spirit's wings

Wafting to noble actions.

Pylades

Thus we pursue what always flies before;

We disregard the path in which we tread.

Pylades

The gods avenge not on the son the deeds

Done by the father. Each, or good or bad,

Of his own actions reaps the due reward.

The parents' blessing, not their curse, descends.

Pylades

Of what avail is prudence, if it fail

Heedful to mark the purposes of Heaven?

Pylades

When the Powers on high decree

For a feeble child of earth

Dire perplexity and woe,

And his spirit doom to pass

With tumult wild from joy to grief,

And back again from grief to joy,

In fearful alternation;

They in mercy then provide,

In the precincts of his home,

Or upon the distant shore,

That to him may never fail

Ready help in hours of need,

A tranquil, faithful friend.

Iphigenia