Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Zitate auf Englisch (seite 2)

Alles ist einfacher, als man denken kann, zugleich verschränkter, als zu begreifen ist.
Maxim 1209, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: Everything is simpler than we can imagine, at the same time more complex and intertwined than can be comprehended.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

As quoted in Human Development : A Science of Growth (1961) by Justin Pikunas, p. 311; this might be based on a translation or paraphrase by Viktor Frankl, to whom it is also sometimes attributed.
:In Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre (Book VIII, Chapter four) Goethe writes:
:“Wenn wir” sagtest Du, “die Menschen nur nehmen, wie sie sind, so machen wir sie schlechter; wenn wir sie behandeln als wären sie, was sie sein sollten, so bringen wir sie dahin, wohin sie zu bringen sind."
:Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe in 14 Bänden, Verlag C. H. Beck München, Herausgegeben von Erich Trunz
: Variant translations:
:*Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
::* As quoted in My Country Vol. 2, No. 3 (September 1968) by Litchfield Historical Society, p. 23
:* "‘When we take people,’ thou wouldst say, ‘merely as they are, we make them worse; when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve them as far as they can be improved.’"
::* This translation occurs in the Harvard Classics edition of Wilhem Meister's Apprenticeship, Book VIII, Chapter IV. Translation by Thomas Carlyle Bartelby Online Edition of 'Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'. http://www.bartleby.com/314/804.html
Disputed

Also attributed to Charles V.
Attributed

Blut ist ein ganz besondrer Saft.
Variant translation: Blood is a very special juice.
Faust's Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)

Bk. III, Ch. 1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)

Act II, The Gothic Chamber
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.
Maxim 91
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

Conversations with Eckermann (entry for 31 January 1827)

Elegy 1
Roman Elegies (1789)
Kontext: I'm gazing at church and palace, ruin and column,
Like a serious man making sensible use of a journey,
But soon it will happen, and all will be one vast temple,
Love's temple, receiving its new initiate.
Though you're a whole world, Rome, still, without Love,
The world isn't the world, and Rome can't be Rome.

Act IV, sc. iv
Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787)

Bk. II, Ch. 4
Elective Affinities (1809)

Attributed

So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein!
Alternative translation: So certain is it that he alone is great and happy, who requires neither to command nor to obey, in order to secure his being of some importance in the world.
Götz von Berlichingen, Act I (1773), p. 39
Quelle: Goethe’s Works, vol. 3, Götz Von Berlichingen (With the Iron Hand) http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2113&layout=html#chapter_164458
Quelle: Beautiful thoughts from German and Spanish authors, by C. T. Ramage (1868) https://archive.org/stream/beautifulthough00unkngoog#page/n112/mode/2up

Act I, A Spacious Hall
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

Wandrers Nachtlied (Wanderer's Nightsong)

Die Botschaft hör ich wohl, allein, mir fehlt der Glaube
Faust's Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)

Der Irrthum verhält sich gegen das Wahre wie der Schlaf gegen das Wachen. Ich habe bemerkt, daß man aus dem Irren sich wie erquickt wieder zu dem Wahren hinwende.
Maxim 331, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)