All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.

Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, und grun des Lebens goldner Baum.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

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More information about this quote

Topic

Life

Speaker

Mephistopheles

Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Source

Faust

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play) Tragedy

Language

German

Time

1808 1800s 19th century

Occupation

Writer

From

Germany Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Studiezimmer [Study Room]." Faust. Eine Tragödie [Faust: A Tragedy]. Tübingen: J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1808.

Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Study Room." Faust, Part One, edited by David Luke. Oxford University Press, 2008.

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A quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about life: “All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life…”
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A quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about life: “All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life…”
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A quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about life: “All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who strives always to the utmost,
For him there is salvation.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

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More information about this quote
Topic
Going for it Doing one's best

Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source
Faust
Medium
Play
Genre
Tragedy (play) Tragedy
Language
German
Time
1808 1800s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil [Faust. The Tragedy's Second Part]. 1832, act 5.

Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust: Part Two, translated by David Luke. Oxford University Press, 2008, act 5.

Another quote from the 1800s

Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither.

William Wordsworth

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollection of Early Childhood

More information about this quote
Topic
Heaven

Author

William Wordsworth
Source
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollection of Early Childhood
Medium
Poem
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
English
Time
1807 1800s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Wordsworth, William. "Ode." Poems, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807. st. 9.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, William. "Ode ('There was a time')." William Wordsworth: The Major Works: including The Prelude, edited by Stephen Gill. Oxford University Press, 2008, st. 9.

Another quote about Life

Everything that lives,
Lives not alone, nor for itself.

William Blake

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More information about this quote
Topic
Interconnectedness of all things Nature of life Life

Author

William Blake
Source
The Book of Thel
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1789 1780s 18th century
Authentication Score 1
Original Citation

Blake, William. The Book of Thel. London, c. 1789.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "The Book of Thel." Blake: Poems, edited by Peter Washington. Everyman's Library, 1994.

Another quote originally in German

Who reflects too much will accomplish little.

Friedrich Schiller

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Read Wilhelm Tell at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Thinking vs. doing
Speaker
Wilhelm Tell

Author

Friedrich Schiller
Source
Wilhelm Tell
Medium
Play
Genre
Drama (play) Drama
Language
German
Time
1804 1800s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Citation

Schiller, Friedrich. Wilhelm Tell [William Tell]. 17 Mar. 1804, Weimarer Hoftheatre (now Deutsche Nationaltheatre Weimar), Weimar, Germany, act 3, sc. 1.