Literature Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Literature decays only as men become more and more corrupt.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

National literature no longer means very much, the age of world literature is due.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Love does not rule; but it trains, and that is more.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on how one looks at it.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Only that type of story deserves to be called moral that shows us that one has the power within oneself to act,…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Literature is a fragment of a fragment. Of all that ever happened, or has been said, but a fraction has been written;…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Let this little book be thy friend, if, owing to fortune or through thine own fault, thou canst not find a dearer…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Left to itself every literature will exhaust its vitality, if it is not refreshed by the interest and contributions of a foreign…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe