Werther Quotes

“Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“However confused I become, I will always hold close the notion that I could find freedom. I could leave this prison if I liked, if I wanted to … or if I didn’t see any other way. And if I did, I would not give you the satisfaction of burying me under a priest.”
― John Zelazny, The Sorrows of Young Mike

“Ah siz akıllı insanlar! Tutku! Sarhoşluk! Delilik! Empati kurmadan, orada öyle rahat rahat oturun, alkoliği eleştirin, aklını kaçırmıştan nefret edin, bir rahip gibi yanından geçip gidin ve sizi onlardan biri yapmadığı için Ferisi gibi Tanrı'ya şükredin. Ben birçok kez sarhoş oldum, tutkularım delilikten hiç uzak değildi, her ikisinden de pişman değilim: Zira olanaksız görünen önemli şeyler yapan ve eskiden beri alkolik ve deli diye damgalanan tüm sıra dışı insanları kendi ölçülerimle anlamayı öğrendim.
Ama az çok özgür, soylu, beklenmedik bir iş yapan hemen hemen herkesin arkasından şöyle söylendiğini duymak, sıradan yaşamda bile katlanılmazdır: 'Bu insan alkolik, bu insan deli!' Utanın siz ayıklar! Utanın siz akıllılar!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Que la vida del hombre es solamente un sueño ya se le había ocurrido a bastantes, y también a mi me acompaña por todas partes ese sentimiento. Cuando contemplo la limitación a que se hallan reducidas las fuerzas activas e inquisitivas del hombre; cuando veo que toda actividad tiende a la satisfacción de las necesidades, que a su vez no tienen más objeto que la de prolongar nuestra pobre existencia, y que toda tranquilidad sobre ciertos de la investigación no es más que una resignación fundada en los sueños, como cuando se pintan los muros donde estamos encarcelados con figuras multicolores y perspectivas luminosas.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“All extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“ONE HUNDRED TIMES have I been on the point of embracing
her. Heavens! what a torment it is to see so much loveliness
passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold
of it! And laying hold is the most natural of human instincts.
Do not children touch everything they see?”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Zapanjen sam kako sam svjesno, korak po korak, ušao u sve to; kako sam uvijek u tako jasnom svjetlu vidio svoj položaj, a ipak sam postupao kao dijete; kako i sada još jasno vidim, a još uvijek nema ni traga nade da stvari pođu nabolje.”
― Johann Wolfgang Goethe

“Mă întorc în mine însumi și găsesc o lume!”
― Goethe

“I turned my face away. She should not act thus. She ought
not to excite my imagination with such displays of heavenly
innocence and happiness, nor awaken my heart from its slumbers,
in which it dreams of the worthlessness of life!”
― Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

“Yesterday, when I took leave she seized me by the hand, and
said, “Adieu, dear Werther.” Dear Werther! It was the first
time she ever called me dear: the sound sunk deep into my
heart. I have repeated it a hundred times; and last night, on
going to bed, and talking to myself of various things, I suddenly
said, “Good night, dear Werther!” and then could not
but laugh at myself.”
― Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

“<> dissi io. <>”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Dio solo sa che cosa voglia dire sedersi, essere dinnanzi a una creatura incantevole e non poter porgerle la mano, nonostante l'afferrare sia l'impulso più naturale fra gli uomini. I bambini non allungano la mano verso tutto quello che colpisce i loro sensi?”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Bir şey də aydındır: Dünyada insanı sevdirən, yalnız məhəbbətin gücüdür.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden Des Jungen Werther

“Bizdə ilk təəssürata meyil olduqca güclüdür, buna görə də doğruya oxşamayan nə varsa hamısına inanmağa hazırıq, bu təəssürat bizdə dərhal kök salıb qalır, vay o adamın halına ki, bunu çıxarıb atmağa və kökündən yox eləməyə təşəbbüs edə!”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Nə üçün insanın xoşbəxtliyini təşkil edən bir şey, həm də onun iztirablarının mənbəyi olmalıdır?”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“İnsana üzərində xoşbəxt yaşamaq üçün bir qədər torpaq lazımdır, həmişəlik rahat olmaq üçün isə daha az torpaq gərək olur.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Lakin, insan öz təbiət etibarilə o qədər məhduddur ki, öz varlığının əvvəlini və axırını dərk edə bilmir.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Indeed, it was perhaps the most iconic scene from any novel of its day, immortalised in engravings and artworks from the period and later. Werther, as Geothe’s narrator, describes the moment of desire in the first person: "I walked across the court to a well-built house, and, ascending the flight of steps in front, opened the door, and saw before me the most charming spectacle I had ever witnessed. Six children, from eleven to two years old, were running about the hall, and surrounding a lady of middle height, with a lovely figure, dressed in a robe of simple white, trimmed with pink ribbons. She was holding a rye loaf in her hand and was cutting slices for the little ones all around, in proportion to their age and appetite. She performed her task in a graceful and affec-tionate manner; each claimant awaiting his turn with outstretched hands, and boisterously shouting his thanks. Some of them ran away at once, to enjoy their evening meal; whilst others, of a gentler disposition, retired to the courtyard to see the strangers, and to survey the carriage in which their Charlotte was to drive away." The focus here is not on Lotte herself, of whom we learn only that she is ‘a lady of middle height, with a lovely figure, dressed in a robe of simple white’. Instead, for Werther what is important is what Barthes would call ‘the arrangements of objects’: Lotte’s relation to the children, the rye loaf, and the knife, all appear as scene-setting props which make desire possible. Lotte emerges from amidst these objects and Werther is ‘initiated’ as ‘the scene’ (described by Werther as the ‘most charming spectacle’) ‘consecrates the object [he is] going to love.’ It is that scene, that arrangement of objects, which makes desire – even love – possible. The technologies of our space, place and time set the scene for love to appear – make the emergence of desire possible. We don’t fall in love with an object in isolation but with how it appears in a curate scene determined by a variety of technologies. The Tinder profile card could hardly be a more perfect example from today.”
― Alfie Bown, Dream Lovers: The Gamification of Relationships