Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade.

A mask of gold hides all deformities.

Things are not always as they seem.

she shall scant show well that now shows best.

You look like an angel, walk like an angel, talk like an angel. But I got wise, you're the devil in disguise.

Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousand more: but they are not what they appear - they are merely masks... Usually, as I say, there is nothing but industrialists, businessmen and speculators concealed behind all these masks.

Turns out it was mostly a lie. But, at least for a short while, it was a beautiful one.

You can put lipstick and earrings on a hog and call it Monique, but it's still a pig.

Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.

It's the same with spirit guises; show me a sweet little choirboy or a smiling mother and I'll show you the hideous fanged strigoi it really is. (Not always. Just sometimes. *Your* mother is absolutely fine, for instance. Probably.)

Things are not what they seem.

There are some as are what they are. And there are some as aren't what they seem to be. And there are some as only seem to be what they seem to be.

You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.

In the beginning there was faith - which is childish; trust - which is vain; and illusion - which is dangerous.

All I know is reception; I am and I have: but I do not get, and when I fancied I had gotten anything, I found I did not.

All is not gold that glisters.

Things are not at all what they seem to be: oh no, not at all.

Things don't always look as they seem.

Illusions... are simple facts, but they have been created by the mind, by the spirit, and they are one of the justifications of the new spatial configuration.

If nothing is the way it seems, then this life is just a haunted dream.

Cracks especially. You have to be careful of the cracks.. Sometimes they are disguised as something else. A doorway, or a smile or even a winking eye. And if you fall through them, you never know were you will end up.

Appearances are deceptive.

It is the Land of Truth (enchanted name!), surrounded by a wide and stormy ocean, the true home of illusion, where many a fog bank and ice, that soon melts away, tempt us to believe in new lands, while constantly deceiving the adventurous mariner with vain hopes, and involving him in adventures which he can never leave, yet never bring to an end.

World can be a bewildering place,and dreams and ambitions are often paths to the most pernicious of traps

I am not merry, but I do beguile the thing I am by seeming otherwise.