To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions,… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
If you are to accomplish all that one demands of you, you must overestimate your own worth. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Continue to make the demands of the day your immediate concern, and take occasion to test the purity of your hearts and… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Truth is contrary to our nature, not so error, and this for a very simple reason: truth demands that we should recognize… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
But what is your duty? What the day demands. [Ger., Was aber ist deine Pflicht? Die Forderung des Tages.] — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Copy Share Image
Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
