Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Morality
• Envy
• Ill-Will

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Quotes to Explore

• Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Human
  • Act
  • Morality

• There are a few dogmas and double standards and really regrettable exports from philosophy that have confounded the thinking of scientists on the subject of morality.

  

  Sam Harris
  • Thinking
  • Philosophy
  • Morality

• I'm not confident around compliments or being celebrated, and I'm not comfortable with the thought of envy, which some people thrive on.

  

  Rachel Weisz
  • People
  • Thought
  • Envy

• The Holocaust changed our perception of morality not only because we discovered that morality is the only thing that can stand up to the ultimate evil, but also because it shifted the focus from society to the individual.

  

  Yair Lapid
  • Up
  • Society
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• Poetry, whatever the manifest content of the poem, is always a violation of the rationalism and morality of bourgeois society.

  

  Octavio Paz
  • Society
  • Poetry
  • Morality

• There's always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.

  

  D. H. Lawrence
  • Real
  • End
  • Garden

• The only time I've ever really felt envy is when I've watched people make music, which made my time living in the now-legendary Jazz Loft at 821 Sixth Avenue in New York a constant source of agony and ecstasy!

  

  Harold Feinstein
  • People
  • Time
  • Music

• Philosophy as practice does not mean its restriction to utility or applicability, that is, to what serves morality or produces serenity of soul.

  

  Karl Jaspers
  • Soul
  • Practice
  • Philosophy

• The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.

  

  Victor Hugo
  • Way
  • Hate
  • Envy

• In America, if you succeed, you don't have to apologize. In Italy, success is envied, and envy is the worst, worst, worst thing in the world. It's easy for me to say because I have had more than many others, but at the end of the day, I have never envied anyone. I wish to no one that they waste their time envying anyone else.

  

  Lapo Elkann
  • Time
  • World
  • America

• Morality is contraband in war.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • War
  • Morality

• I have seen many teachers in real life, which come from the same background and morality and treat their profession like just another one rather than a noble profession.

  

  Nawazuddin Siddiqui
  • Life
  • Real
  • Same

• I like moral judgment to emerge from the reader. We are being sold a very simplistic morality by our leaders at a time when nuance and understanding are at a premium.

  

  Hari Kunzru
  • Time
  • Understanding
  • Moral

• A painter, who finds no satisfaction in mere representation, however artistic, in his longing to express his inner life, cannot but envy the ease with which music, the most non-material of the arts today, achieves this end. He naturally seeks to apply the methods of music to his own art.

  

  Wassily Kandinsky
  • Life
  • Music
  • Art

• Modern morality is all about perception.

  

  Rachel Cusk
  • Perception
  • Modern
  • Morality

• Envy blinds men and makes it impossible for them to think clearly.

  

  Malcolm X
  • Men
  • Think
  • Impossible

• I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on.

  

  Oscar Levant
  • People
  • Envy
  • Blame

• You campaigned against rich people and you got enough envy whipped up in the country and you're gonna get 'em. You're gonna stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get anymore revenue. You may not get anymore economic growth. But you can say, 'I stuck it to the rich people.'

  

  Rand Paul
  • People
  • Up
  • Country

• Grace abounds in contemporary movies, books, novels, films and music. If God is not in the whirlwind, He may be in a Woody Allen film, or a Bruce Springsteen concert. Most people understand imagery and symbol better than doctrine and dogma. Images touch hearts and awaken imaginations. One theologian suggested that Springsteen's 'Tunnel of Love' album, in which he symbolically sings of sin, death, despair and redemption, is more important for Catholics than the Pope's last visit when he spoke of morality only in doctrinal propositions.

  

  Brennan Manning
  • Music
  • Movies
  • Grace

• She, though in full-blown flower of glorious beauty,Grows cold even in the summer of her age.

  

  John Dryden
  • She
  • Age
  • Cold

• Our modern Western culture only recognises the first of these, freedom of desires. It then worships such a freedom by enshrining it at the forefront of national constituitions and bills of human rights. One can say that the underlying creed of most Western democracies is to protect their people's freedom to realise their desires, as far as this is possible. It is remarkable that in such countries people do not feel very free. The second kind of freedom, freedom from desires, is celebrated only in some religious communities. It celebrates contentment, peace that is free from desires.

  

  Ajahn Brahm
  • Culture
  • Freedom
  • Protect

• Hear only the things you should hear - be deaf to others.

  Ford Frick
  • You
  • Others
  • Deaf

• An Irish Airman foresees his Death I Know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love, My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public man, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.

  

  William Butler Yeats
  • Men
  • Country
  • Fighting

• The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy.

  

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • Morality
  • Envy
  • Ill-Will