2,348 Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As usual, I shall tell my story badly; and you, as usual, will think me extravagant.

I could be living the best and happiest of lives if only I were not a fool.

Where confidence is wanting, the most beautiful flower in the garland of love is missing.

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen,Was sie nicht verstehn.

Everything is just how I imagined it, yet everything is new

Du hast so viele Leben, wie du Sprachen sprichst. (You have as many lives as the number of languages you speak.)

I will say nothing against the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.

I will say nothing... against the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.

Even the prudent and the good have before now hesitated to explain their mutual differences, and have dwelt in silence upon their imaginary grievances, until circumstances have become so entangled, that in that critical juncture, when a calm explanation would have saved all parties, an understanding was impossible.