Faust

Faust

by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mephistopheles is the devil himself, who offers his services to Faust in the hopes of winning the great man’s soul. He has a gentlemanly if antagonistic relationship with the Lord God, acknowledging that, though he himself always wills evil, he ultimately only contributes to the good which God ordains. For this reason, the devil is rather bored with creation and his role in it, preferring random to destruction over any kind of purposeful activity. He is, in short, the spirit of eternal negation, a sarcastic character given to the commission of vicious pranks and monstrous crimes. The devil is truly impotent in the end, however, capable only of deceptions and illusions. So it is that the virtuous characters in the play, like Gretchen and Helen, always perceive at once that Mephistopheles is a repellent creature. Furthermore, Mephistopheles’s influence is limited only to his home in the North, for he is a medieval European figure, not familiar with, or fluent in, the Classical world of myths. When he and Faust go to Greece for Classical Walpurgis Night, for example, the devil is a stranger in a strange land, obsessed with sin and flesh in a culture that thinks only in terms of the beautiful and the ugly. The devil then fails to win Faust’s soul when he is distracted by sudden lust for the angels who are scattering roses from above.

Mephistopheles Quotes in Faust

The Faust quotes below are all either spoken by Mephistopheles or refer to Mephistopheles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Reason and Passion Theme Icon
).
Prologue in Heaven Quotes

I merely see how mankind toils and moils.
Earth’s little gods still do not change a bit,
are just as odd as on their primal day.
Their lives would be a little easier
if You’d not let them glimpse the light of heaven—
they call it Reason and employ it only
to be more bestial than any beast.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), The Lord
Page Number: 280-286
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Faust’s Study 2 Quotes

[I am] a part of that force
which, always willing evil, always produces good.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Heinrich Faust
Page Number: 1335-1336
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Faust’s Study 3 Quotes

Take my word for it, anyone who thinks too much
is like an animal that in a barren heath
some evil spirit drives around in circles
while all about lie fine green pastures.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Heinrich Faust
Page Number: 1830-1833
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Auerbach’s Wine-Cellar in Leipzig Quotes

Simple folk never sense the devil’s presence,
not even when his hands are on their throats.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Heinrich Faust, Frosch, Brander, Siebel, Altmayer
Page Number: 2181-2182
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Walpurgis Night Quotes

Great folk may like the noisy life,
we’ll be quite cozy in this quiet spot.
Besides, it is an ancient practice
to make your own small worlds inside the great one.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker)
Page Number: 4042-4045
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Act 1: The Throne Room Quotes

Nature and intellect are not words said to Christians.
Because such language is so dangerous
the atheist is executed at the stake.
Nature is sin, and Intellect the devil;
hermaphroditic Doubt their child
which they foster together.

Related Characters: The Chancellor-Archbishop (speaker), Mephistopheles, The Emperor
Page Number: 4897-4902
Explanation and Analysis:

That merit and good fortune are connected
is something that these idiots will never see;
the philosopher’s stone could be in their possession,
but there’d be no philosopher to use it.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker)
Page Number: 5061-5064
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Act 1: A Dark Gallery Quotes

You are the father of all mystagogues
who ever cheated docile neophytes,
but you reverse their method—send me to a void
for higher wisdom and for greater powers.
You’re making me the cat whose task it is
to pull your chestnuts from the fire.
But do not stop! Let’s probe the matter fully,
since in your Nothingness I hope to find my All.

Related Characters: Heinrich Faust (speaker), Mephistopheles
Page Number: 6249-6256
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Act 2: The Pharsalian Fields Quotes

You’ll never learn unless you make mistakes.
If you want to exist, do so on your own!

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Homunculus
Page Number: 7847-7848
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mephistopheles Quotes in Faust

The Faust quotes below are all either spoken by Mephistopheles or refer to Mephistopheles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Reason and Passion Theme Icon
).
Prologue in Heaven Quotes

I merely see how mankind toils and moils.
Earth’s little gods still do not change a bit,
are just as odd as on their primal day.
Their lives would be a little easier
if You’d not let them glimpse the light of heaven—
they call it Reason and employ it only
to be more bestial than any beast.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), The Lord
Page Number: 280-286
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Faust’s Study 2 Quotes

[I am] a part of that force
which, always willing evil, always produces good.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Heinrich Faust
Page Number: 1335-1336
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Faust’s Study 3 Quotes

Take my word for it, anyone who thinks too much
is like an animal that in a barren heath
some evil spirit drives around in circles
while all about lie fine green pastures.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Heinrich Faust
Page Number: 1830-1833
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Auerbach’s Wine-Cellar in Leipzig Quotes

Simple folk never sense the devil’s presence,
not even when his hands are on their throats.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Heinrich Faust, Frosch, Brander, Siebel, Altmayer
Page Number: 2181-2182
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Walpurgis Night Quotes

Great folk may like the noisy life,
we’ll be quite cozy in this quiet spot.
Besides, it is an ancient practice
to make your own small worlds inside the great one.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker)
Page Number: 4042-4045
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Act 1: The Throne Room Quotes

Nature and intellect are not words said to Christians.
Because such language is so dangerous
the atheist is executed at the stake.
Nature is sin, and Intellect the devil;
hermaphroditic Doubt their child
which they foster together.

Related Characters: The Chancellor-Archbishop (speaker), Mephistopheles, The Emperor
Page Number: 4897-4902
Explanation and Analysis:

That merit and good fortune are connected
is something that these idiots will never see;
the philosopher’s stone could be in their possession,
but there’d be no philosopher to use it.

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker)
Page Number: 5061-5064
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Act 1: A Dark Gallery Quotes

You are the father of all mystagogues
who ever cheated docile neophytes,
but you reverse their method—send me to a void
for higher wisdom and for greater powers.
You’re making me the cat whose task it is
to pull your chestnuts from the fire.
But do not stop! Let’s probe the matter fully,
since in your Nothingness I hope to find my All.

Related Characters: Heinrich Faust (speaker), Mephistopheles
Page Number: 6249-6256
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Act 2: The Pharsalian Fields Quotes

You’ll never learn unless you make mistakes.
If you want to exist, do so on your own!

Related Characters: Mephistopheles (speaker), Homunculus
Page Number: 7847-7848
Explanation and Analysis: