319 quotes
What they're accustomed to is no great matter,
But then, alas! they've read an awful deal.
Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord
preferred to live with whores
& sinners, seeing
I go in for that myself.
Venetian Epigrams (1790)
Who wants to understand the poem
Must go to the land of poetry;
Who wishes to understand the poet
Must go to the poet's land.
Whoever gives himself up to solitude,
Ah! he is soon alone.
To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence — this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786)
Let the noble man
Be generous and good,
Tirelessly achieving
What is just and useful:
Let him be a model
For those beings whom he surmises.
A world without love would be no world.
Roman Elegies (1789)
You've only got to grow old to be more lenient; I see no fault committed of which I too haven't been guilty.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.
If you have any faith, give me, for heaven's sake, a share of it! Your doubts you may keep to yourself, for I have a plenty of my own.
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
People say, “Artist, study nature!” But it is no small matter to develop what is noble out of what is common, beauty out of what lacks form.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures
To restless action spurs our fate!
Cursed when for soft, indulgent leisures,
He lays for us the pillows straight.
True happiness springs from moderation.
A fiery chariot, borne on buoyant pinions,
Sweeps near me now! I soon shall ready be
To pierce the ether's high, unknown dominions,
To reach new spheres of pure activity!
This is why we may say that those who parade piety as a purpose and an aim mostly turn into hypocrites
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
Piety is not an end but a means to attain ... the highest degree of culture. This is why ... those who parade piety as a purpose and an aim mostly turn into hypocrites.
Stood I, O Nature! man alone in thee,
Then were it worth one's while a man to be.
Those who cannot draw conclusions
From three thousand years of learning
Stay naïve in dark confusions
Day to day live undiscerning.
West–östlicher Divan (West–Eastern Diwan) (1819)
Tell me, eyes, what 'tis ye're seeking;
For ye're saying something sweet,
Fit the ravish'd ear to greet.
Eloquently, softly speaking.