Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.
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Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
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One never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going.
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One errs as long as one strives.
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Strike the dog dead, it's but a critic!
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It is a great pleasure to transport one's-self into the spirit of the times; to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it.
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People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.
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Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.
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A useless life is an early death. [Ger., Ein unnutz Leben ist ein fruher Tod.]
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What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive.
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Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
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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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To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
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As our inclinations, so our opinions.
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The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing: truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side.
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Well-mannered children could be conceived if the parents were well-mannered.
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A king there was once reigning, Who had a goodly flea, Him loved he without feigning, As his own son were he!
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The Bible grows more beautiful, as we grow in our understanding of it.
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Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.
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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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Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner eigenen.He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
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The iron hand of necessity commands, and her stern decree is supreme law, to which the gods even must submit. In deep silence rules the uncounselled sister of eternal fate. Whatever she lays upon thee, endure; perform whatever she commands.
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Never by reflection, but only by doing is self- knowledge possible to one.
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Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic.