Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
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Es ist so gewiß als wunderbar, daß Wahrheit und Irrthum aus Einer Quelle entstehen; deßwegen man oft dem Irrthum nicht schaden darf, weil man zugleich der Wahrheit schadet.
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Experiments are mediators between nature and idea.
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Mysterious in the light of day, nature retains her veil, despite our clamours: That which she does not willingly display cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws and hammers.
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One is led astray alike by sympathy and coldness, by praise and by blame.
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We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.
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So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes. It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these pages of the book of life.
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On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
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Behaviour is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.
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I consider him of no account who esteems himself just as the popular breath may chance to raise him.
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This is the true measure of love, When we believe that we alone can love, That no one could ever have loved so before us, And that no one will ever love in the same way after us.
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The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.
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The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.
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The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.
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What man does not know, Or has not thought of, Wanders in the night Through the labyrinth of the mind.
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Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.
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The mark of highest originality lies in the ability to develop a familiar idea so fruitfully that it would seem no one else would ever have discovered so much to be hidden in it.
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Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.
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There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries.
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This is why we may say that those who parade piety as a purpose and an aim mostly turn into hypocrites
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The useful may be trusted to further itself, for many produce it and no one can do without it; but the beautiful must be specially encouraged, for few can present it, while yet all have need of it.
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Nichts ist höher schätzen als der Werth des Tages.
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Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.
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Traveling is like gambling: it is always connected with winning and losing and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for.