Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Zitate auf Englisch (seite 3)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe war deutscher Dichter und Dramatiker. Zitate auf Englisch.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 968   Zitate 396   Gefällt mir

“What is Classical is healthy; what is Romantic is sick.”

Das Klassische nenne ich das Gesunde und das Romantische das Kranke.
Maxim 1031, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.”

Wir sprechen überhaupt viel zu viel. Wir sollten weniger sprechen und mehr zeichnen. Ich meinerseits möchte mir das Reden ganz abgewöhnen und wie die bildende Natur in lauter Zeichnungen fortsprechen.
Attributed to Goethe by Johannes Falk in Goethe aus näherm persönlichen Umgange dargestellt (1832). http://www.literatur-live.de/salon/_falk_goethe.pdf
Attributed

“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.”

Man sagt: „Studire, Künstler, die Natur!”
Es ist aber keine Kleinigkeit, aus dem Gemeinen das Edle, aus der Unform das Schöne zu entwickeln.
Maxim 191, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit — this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre

Die Welt ist so leer, wenn man nur Berge, Flüsse und Städte darin denkt, aber hie und da jemand zu wissen, der mit uns übereinstimmt, mit dem wir auch stillschweigend fortleben, das macht uns dieses Erdenrund erst zu einem bewohnten Garten.
"Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre," in Goethes Sämmtliche Werke, vol. 7 (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, 1874), p. 520
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)

“Among all peoples, the Greeks have dreamt life's dream most beautifully.”

Unter allen Völkerschaften haben die Griechen den Traum des Lebens am schönsten geträumt.
Maxim 298, trans. Stopp
Variant translation by Saunders: Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life the best. (189)
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.”

Torquato Tasso, Act I, sc. ii (1790)

“You really only know when you know little. Doubt grows with knowledge.”

Maxim 281, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: Only when we know little do we know anything. Doubt grows with knowledge.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“Nothing should be treasured more highly than the value of the day.”

Nichts ist höher schätzen als der Werth des Tages.
Maxim 789, trans. Stopp
Variant translation by Saunders: Nothing is more highly to be prized than the value of each day. (332)
Variant translation: Nothing is worth more than this day.
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.”

Maxim 715, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“One is never satisfied with a portrait of a person that one knows.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Die Wahlverwandtschaften

Bk. II, Ch. 2
Elective Affinities (1809)

“Love does not dominate, it cultivates. And that is more.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily

Die Liebe herrscht nicht, aber sie bildet; und das ist mehr!
Das Märchen (1795), as translated by Hermann J. Weigand in Wisdom and Experience (1949); also translated elsewhere as The Fairy-Tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily, and simply The Tale]
Variant translations:
Love does not rule; but it trains, and that is more.
As translated by Thomas Carlyle The Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (1832)
Love rules (and reigns) not, but it forms (builds and 'trains'); and that is more!
As quoted in "'Human Immortalities : The Old and the New" by Thaddeus Burr Wakeman, in The Open Court Vol. XX, No. 1 (January 1906), p. 104

“Do you wish to roam farther and farther?
See the good that lies so near.
Just learn how to capture your luck,
for your luck is always there.”

Willst du immer weiterschweifen?
Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah.
Lerne nur das Glück ergreifen,
denn das Glück ist immer da.
Variant translation:
Do you wish to roam farther and farther?
See! The Good lies so near.
Only learn to seize good fortune,
For good fortune's always here.
Erinnerung