Quotes from Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ·  503 pages

Rating: (23.4K votes)


“Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,
And each will wrestle for the mastery there.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“من هرگز در حسرت بال پرندگان نخواهم بود. جذبه های جانم، از کتابی به کتاب دیگر و از صفحه ای به صفحه ی دیگر مرا به جاهای بسیار دورتر می برند.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Sweet moonlight, shining full and clear,
Why do you light my torture here?
How often have you seen me toil,
Burning last drops of midnight oil.
On books and papers as I read,
My friend, your mournful light you shed.
If only I could flee this den
And walk the mountain-tops again,
Through moonlit meadows make my way,
In mountain caves with spirits play -
Released from learning's musty cell,
Your healing dew would make me well!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“But who will dare to speak the truth out clear?
The few who anything of truth have learned,
And foolishly did not keep truth concealed,
Their thoughts and visions to the common herd revealed,
Since time began we've crucified and burned”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Medicine, and Law, and Philosophy -
You've worked your way through every school,
Even, God help you, Theology,
And sweated at it like a fool.
Why labour at it any more?
You're no wiser now than you were before.
You're Master of Arts, and Doctor too,
And for ten years all you've been able to do
Is lead your students a fearful dance
Through a maze of error and ignorance.
And all this misery goes to show
There's nothing we can ever know.
Oh yes you're brighter than all those relics,
Professors and Doctors, scribblers and clerics,
No doubts or scruples to trouble you,
Defying hell, and the Devil too.
But there's no joy in self-delusion;
Your search for truth ends in confusion.
Don't imagine your teaching will ever raise
The minds of men or change their ways.
And as for worldly wealth, you have none -
What honour or glory have you won?
A dog could stand this life no more.
And so I've turned to magic lore;
The spirit message of this art
Some secret knowledge might impart.
No longer shall I sweat to teach
What always lay beyond my reach;
I'll know what makes the world revolve,
Its mysteries resolve,
No more in empty words I'll deal -
Creation's wellsprings I'll reveal!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust



“When I say to the Moment flying;
'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!'
Then bind me in thy bonds undying,
And my final ruin I will bear!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“There is no day that one should skip
But one should seize, without distrust,
The possible with iron grip”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“from desire I rush to satisfaction; from satisfaction I leap to desire.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“If I wasn't a devil myself I'd give
Me up to the Devil this very minute.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust



“Though the ear choose not to hear,
In the heart I echo,clear:
Always found, and never sought,
Praised, as well as cursed, in thought.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“ Într-adevăr ştiu multe, dar aş vrea să ştiu totul. ”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“If I wasn't a devil myself I'd give
Me up to the Devil this very minute.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“I call him happy who still hopes to rise
To the surface in this sea of error.
The very things we don't know, we could use
And what we do know we have no use for.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“I hope we shall get on together, you and I;
I've come to cheer you up - That's why
I'm dressed up like an aristocrat
In a fine red coat with golden stitches,
A stiff silk cape on top of that,
A long sharp dagger in my breeches,
And a cockerel's feather in my hat.
Take my advice - if I were you,
I'd get an outfit like this too;
Then you'd be well equipped to see
Just how exciting life can be.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust



“To me the mountain mass lies nobly mute,
The whences and the whys I don't dispute.
When Nature by and in herself was founded,
In purity the earthen sphere she rounded.
In summit and in gorge did pleasure seek,
And threaded cliff to cliff and peak to peak;
Then did she fashion sloping hills at peace
And gently down into the vale release.
All greens and grows, and to her gay abundance
Your swirling lunacies are sheer redundance.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Yes - this I hold to with devout insistence,
Wisdom's last verdict goes to say:
He only earns both freedom and existence
Who must reconquer them each day.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Dust shall he eat, and greedily,
like my celebrated serpent-cousin”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“THE WITCH.
[dancing].

O I shall lose my wits, I fear,
Do I, again, see Squire Satan here!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Woman, the name offends my ear!

THE WITCH.
Why so? What has it done to you?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
It has long since to fable-books been banished;
But men are none the better for it; true,
The wicked one, but not the wicked ones, has vanished.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“ماذا تريد أن تعطي أيها الشيطان المسكين؟ هل فهم أمثالك روح الإنسان في مسعاه السامي؟ نعم عندك طعام ولكنه لايشبع وعندك ذهب أحمر لكنه كالزئبق ينساب من يدك ، وعندك قمار ، لكن لا أحد فيه يكسب ، وعندك فتاة ، ولكنها وهي بين أحضاني تغازل جاري بعيونها وتصل حبلها بحبله . إنك قد تعطي لذة الشرف الالهية الجميلة ، لكنه يزول كما يزول الشهاب! أرني الثمرة التي لاتعطب قبل أن يقطفها الإنسان ، والأشجار التي تخضوضر كل يوم من جديد”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust



“Tot ce sclipeşte ţine doar o clipă, ce-i cu temei în veci va fi păstrat.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“ان من لايعرف كيف يحكم ذاته الباطنة ، يلذ له أن يتحكم في ارادة الجار بحسب ما تملي عليه كبرياؤه”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Du, Erde, warst auch diese Nacht beständig
Und atmest neu erquickt zu meinen Füßert,
Beginnest schon mit Lust mich zu umgeben,
Du regst und rührst ein kräftiges Beschließen,
Zum höchsten Dasein immerfort zu streben.

This night, thou, Earth! hast also stood unshaken,
And now thou breathest new-refreshed before me,
And now beginnest, all thy gladness granting,
A vigorous resolution to restore me,
To seek that highest life for which I'm panting.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“He calls it reason, using it To be more beast than ever beast was yet.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“What's foreign one can't always keep quite clear of,
For good things, oft, are not so near;
A German can't endure the French to see or hear of,
Yet drinks their wines with hearty cheer.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust



“الطبيعة تتلفع بالأسرارولن تسمح أبدا أن يمزق عنها الحجاب، وما لاتريد هي أن تكشفه لعقلك، لن تستطيع أنت إرغامها على كشفه”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“By Fortune's adverse buffets overborne
To solitude I fled, to wilds forlorn,
And not in utter loneliness to live,
Myself at last did to the Devil give!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Well, that's Philosophy I've read,
And Law and Medicine, and I fear
Theology, too, from A to Z;
Hard studies all, that have cost me dear.
And so I sit, poor silly man
No wiser now than when I began.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


“Entbehren sollst du - sollst entbehren. Thou shalt forego, shalt do without.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quote from Faust


About the author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Born place: in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Born date August 28, 1749
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You ride as a man, fight as a man, and you think as a man-"
"I think as a human being," she retorted hotly. "Men don't think any differently from women- they just make more noise about being able to.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from The Woman Who Rides Like a Man


“You turn the tables on him. You’ve shown him what life’s like when you’re around…now that he’s into you, you need to show him what it’s like when you’re not. Let him know that he’s not your every breath or thought—even if it fucking kills”
― K. Bromberg, quote from Fueled


“How many times have you been in love, Doctor?"

"Twice. The love of my life, and now my soulmate."

"What's the difference? Between the love of your life, and your soulmate?"

"One is a choice, and one is not...There is a string that connects us that is not visible to the eye. Maybe every person has more than one soul they are connected to, and all over the world there are these invisible strings. Maybe the chances that you'll find each and every one of your soulmates is slim. But sometimes you're lucky enough to stumble across one. And you feel a tug. And it's not so much a choice to love them through their flaws and through your differences, but rather you love them without even trying. You love their flaws.”
― Tarryn Fisher, quote from Mud Vein


“We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition.”
― William Gibson, quote from Pattern Recognition


“So long as there are nobles and commoners, the wealthy and the poor, those with power will be heard, and those without ignored. That's the world.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Squire


Interesting books

Corps Security: The Series
(3.2K)
Corps Security: The...
by Harper Sloan
Twilight / Life and Death
(21.3K)
Twilight / Life and...
by Stephenie Meyer
The Glittering Court
(17.9K)
The Glittering Court
by Richelle Mead
The Ship of the Dead
(19.1K)
The Ship of the Dead
by Rick Riordan
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
(2.1K)
Wilhelm Meister's Ap...
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Voyage of the Beagle
(5.5K)
Voyage of the Beagle
by Charles Darwin

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.