Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Hypotheses are only the pieces of scaffolding which are erected round a building during the course of construction, and which are taken away as soon as the edifice is completed.
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Why should we not recognize in the lightning, the thunder, and the storm wind, the approach of an overwhelming Power, and in the scent of flowers and the gently rustling zephyr the presence of a Being full of love?
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Die Wahrheit widerspricht unserer Natur, der Irrthum nicht, und zwar aus einem sehr einfachen Grunde: die Wahrheit fordert, daß wir uns für beschränkt erkennen follen, der Irrthum schmeichelt uns. wir seien auf ein- oder die andere Weise unbegränzt.
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The most congenial social occasions are those ruled by cheerful deference of each for all.
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Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.
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Mozart is a human incarnation of the divine force of creation.
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Let us seek to fathom those things that are fathomable and reserve those things which are unfathomable for reverence in quietude.
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Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet it is the same with this art as with all others: only the capacity for it is innate; the art itself must be learned and painstakingly practiced.
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A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.
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The effects of good music are not just because it's new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it.
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The society of women is the element of good manners.
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With little art, clear wit and sense Suggest their own delivery.
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As all Nature's thousands changes But one changeless God proclaim; So in Art's wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene through time and season Stands aye in loveliness.
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A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him...but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.
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In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no talent is conceivable.
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Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden,Doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern.
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Tell me you stones, O speak, you towering palaces!Streets, say a word! Spirit of this place, are you dumb?All things are alive in your sacred wallsEternal Rome, it's only for me all is still.
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I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.
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Wer nichts wagt, gerwinnt nichts. Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß,Wer nie die kummervollen NächteAuf seinem Bette weinend saß,Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Mächte.
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People will allow their faults to be shown them; they will let themselves be punished for them; they will patiently endure many things because of them; they only become impatient when they have to lay them aside.
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I hate all explanations; they who make them deceive either themselves or the other party,-generally both.
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Law is mighty, mightier necessity.
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A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.
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Neuere Poeten tun viel Wasser in die Tinte.