Language Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“He who knows no foreign language knows nothing of his own”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Words express neither objects nor ourselves.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

For precisely when concepts fail one, Words are found at the right time.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Du hast so viele Leben, wie du Sprachen sprichst. (You have as many lives as the number of languages you speak.)”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When translating one must proceed up to the intranslatable; only then one becomes aware of the foreign nation and the foreign tongue.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All of us, just because we are able to talk, also believe we are able to talk about language.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks they can talk about language.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I curse all negative purism that tells me not to use a word from another language that either expresses something that my…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If the word is not dead when it reaches the hearer, he murders it at once by a contradiction, a stipulation, a…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking. [Ger., Gewohnlich glaubt der Mensch, wenn…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Words are good, but there is something better. The best is not to be explained by words. The spirit in which we…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Go to the place where the thing you wish to know is native; your best teacher is there. Where the thing you…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie alles in ihre eigene Sprache, und so wird es…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you don't know foreign languages, you don't know anything about your own.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner eigenen.He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A word spoken is a terrible thing when it suddenly utters what the heart has long allowed.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Normally, people believe that, if they hear just words, that these words must lead to some thought.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe