Poet Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

At bottom, no real object is unpoetical, if the poet knows how to use it properly.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Give shape, artist! don't talk! Your poem be but a breath.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Modern poets add a lot of water to their ink.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he reflects he is a child.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The true poet is called to take in the splendor of the world and for that reason will always be inclined to…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Whoever would understand the poet Must go into the poet's country. [Ger., Wer den Dichter will verstehen Muss in Dichters Lande gehen.]

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you want to understand poetry, You have to go to its origin, If you want to understand the poet, You have…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We are pantheists as natural scientists, polytheists as poets, and monotheists as moral beings.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rash combat oft immortalizes man; if he should fall, he is renowned in song; but after-ages reckon not the ceaseless tears which…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Don't feel guilty if you don't immediately love your stepchildren as you do your own, or as much as you think you…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As for what I have done as a poet, I take no pride in whatever. Excellent poets have lived at the same…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party; and so soon as he does that, he…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Modern poets mix too much water with their ink. [Ger., Neuere Poeten thun viel Wasser in die Tinte.]

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe