Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Zitate auf Englisch (seite 8)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe war deutscher Dichter und Dramatiker. Zitate auf Englisch.
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“I am the Spirit that always denies!”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Goethes Faust

Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint.
Faust's Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)

“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Letter to A. F. Oeser (9 November 1768), Early and miscellaneous letters of J. W. Goethe, including letters to his mother. With notes and a short biography (1884)

“The person engaged in action is always unconscionable; no one except the contemplative has a conscience.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Der Handelnde ist immer gewissenlos; es hat niemand Gewissen als der Betrachtende.
Maxim 241, trans. Stopp
Variant translation: The man of action is always unprincipled; none but the contemplative has a conscience
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Die Wahlverwandtschaften

Bk. I, Ch. 9
Elective Affinities (1809)

“Nothing venture, nothing gain.
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß

Wer nichts wagt, gerwinnt nichts.
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß,
Wer nie die kummervollen Nächte
Auf seinem Bette weinend saß,
Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Mächte.
Bk. II, Ch. 13; translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Bk. V, Ch. 1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
Original: (de) Man sollte alle Tage wenigstens ein kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein treffliches Gemälde sehen und, wenn es möglich zu machen wäre, einige vernünftige Worte sprechen.

“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.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Bk. VII, Ch. 5
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)

“One never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Letter to Carl Friedrich Zelter (3 December 1812)

“A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maxim 609, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his whole heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Die Wahlverwandtschaften

Bk. II, Ch. 3
Elective Affinities (1809)

“The fashion of this world passeth away and I would fain occupy myself with the things that are abiding.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quoted in the Preface to The Works of Francis Rabelais (1931), Albert Jay Nock and Catherine R. Wilson (Eds.)
Attributed

“For I have been a man, and that means to have been a fighter.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

West-östlicher Diwan, Buch des Paradies (1819)

“You often say to yourself in the course of your life that you ought to avoid having too much business, 'polypragmosyne' [incessant activity], and, more especially, that the older you get, the more you ought to avoid entering on new business. But it's all very well saying this, and giving yourself andothers good advice. The very fact of growing older means taking up a new business; all our circumstances change, and we must either stop doing anything at all or else willing and consciously take on the new role we have to play on life’s stage.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maxim 259, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“I feel I'm happily inspired now on Classical soil:
The Past and Present speak louder, more charmingly.
Here, as advised, I leaf through the works of the Ancients
With busy hands, and, each day, with fresh delight.
But at night Love keeps me busy another way:
I become half a scholar but twice as contented.
And am I not learning, studying the shape
Of her lovely breasts: her hips guiding my hand?”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Römische Elegien

Elegy 5
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.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Man darf nur alt werden, um milder zu sein; ich sehe keinen Fehler begehen, den ich nicht auch begangen hätte.
Maxim 240, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“Translators are like busy match-makers: they sing the praises of some half-veiled beauty, and extol her charms, and arouse an irresistible longing for the original.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maxim 426; translation by Bailey Saunders
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

“What's it to you if I love you?”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Philine in Bk. IV, Ch. 9
Variant translation: If I love you, what business is it of yours?
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)

“Of freedom and of life he only is deserving
Who every day must conquer them anew.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe buch Goethes Faust

Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben
Der täglich sie erobern muß.
Variant translations:
Freedom and life are earned by those alone
Who conquer them each day anew.
trans. Walter Kaufmann
He only earns his freedom and existence,
Who daily conquers them anew.
trans. Bayard Taylor
Act V, Court of the Palace
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

“Patriotism ruins history.”

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Conversation with Friedrich Wilhem Riemer (July, 1817)