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Faust Quotes

Browse 60 quotes about Faust.

Faust Quotes

“But Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment: "Stay, thou art so fair." And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past are certain to miss the future.”

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963

“In fact a favourite problem of Tyndall is-Given the molecular forces in a mutton chop, deduce Hamlet or Faust therefrom. He is confident that the Physics of the Future will solve this easily.”

Facts Problem Science Literature Given Force Solve Physics Favourite Faust Mutton

Author:Thomas Huxley

“Hannibal at eighteen was rooting for Mephistopheles and contemptuous of Faust, but he only half-listened to the climax. He was watching and breathing Lady Murasaki...”

Half Breathing Eighteen Climax Contemptuous Faust Mephistopheles

Author:Thomas Harris

“Faust, the Ninth Symphony, and the will of Adolf Hitler are eternal youth and know neither time nor transience.”

Knows Youth Eternal Symphony Transience Faust Eternal Youth

Author:Baldur von Schirach

“Judas sold his soul for thirty pieces of silver; Faust sold his for some extra years of youth; Marilyn Monroe deserted Jesus Christ for Arthur Miller.”

Years Soul Jesus Christ Pieces Youth Jesus Christ Thirty Extras Silver Arthur Deserted Judas Faust

Book:The Uses of Ineptitude; Or: How Not to Want to Do Better

Source: The Uses of Ineptitude; Or: How Not to Want to Do Better

“Hegel understood the Heisenbergian reality of knowing: yes, it would be nice if we could somehow delicately capture the truth and bring it closer to ourselves without altering it, "like a bird caught with a limestick." But the reality is, every truth we manage to know is altered, deformed by our very "encheiresis naturae," by the act of our taking-in-hand of nature (to borrow the alchemists' phrase from Goethe's Faust).”

Ifs Knows Hands Reality Would Be Truth Knowing Nice Bird Understood Caught Manage Phrases Capture Being Nice Altered Alchemist Hegel Faust

Author:Kenny Smith

“All literature is a footnote to Faust. I have no idea what I mean by that.”

Mean Ideas Literature No Idea Footnotes Faust

Book:The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose

Source: The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose

“My dear young friends, I speak to you as one who stands on the edge of eternity. From that perspective, I see you as the choicest spirits ever placed on the earth. The promises in your generation's patriarchal blessings, if you are faithful, seem to exceed the promises in Sister Faust's blessing and in mine. ...I want you to know that I believe in you. I believe you can be in the world but not of the world.”

“Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment, 'Stay, thou art so fair.”

Art Said Soul Moments Lost Liberty Ambition Fairs Passing Passings Faust Passing Moments

Book:Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy

Source: Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy

“The writer is the Faust of modern society, the only surviving individualist in a mass age. To his orthodox contemporaries he seems a semi-madman.”

Writing Seems Age Modern Mass Orthodox Surviving Madmen Modern Society Faust

Author:Boris Pasternak