At bottom, no real object is unpoetical, if the poet knows how to use it properly. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Give shape, artist! don't talk! Your poem be but a breath. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he reflects he is a child. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
We are pantheists as natural scientists, polytheists as poets, and monotheists as moral beings. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share
As for what I have done as a poet, I take no pride in whatever. Excellent poets have lived at the same time with me, poets more excellent lived before me, and others will come after me. But that in my country I am the only person who knows the truth in the difficult science of colors-of that, I say,… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share
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 Copy Share Image
Modern poets mix too much water with their ink. [Ger., Neuere Poeten thun viel Wasser in die Tinte.] — 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
![“Whoever would understand the poet Must go into the poet's country. [Ger., Wer den Dichter will verstehen Muss in Dichters Lande gehen.]” quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/903/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe-36_country_whoever-would-understand-the-poet-must-g_2795351.jpg)
![“Modern poets mix too much water with their ink. [Ger., Neuere Poeten thun viel Wasser in die Tinte.]” quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/259/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe-36_dies_modern-poets-mix-too-much-water-with-the_781911.jpg)
