Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.
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I have never looked at foreign countries or gone there but with the purpose of getting to know the general human qualities that are spread all over the earth in very different forms, and then to find these qualities again in my own country and to recognize and to further them.
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Toleration ought in reality to be merely a transitory mood. It must lead to recognition. To tolerate is to affront.
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Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it.
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Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them.
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The flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away and leave no trace behind! How few yield any fruit,--and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough; and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed?
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Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.
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The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.
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The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
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A vain man can never be utterly ruthless: he wants to win applause and therefore he accommodates himself to others.
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Why go further and further, Look, happiness is right here. Learn how to grab hold of luck, For luck is always there.
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Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not to-day; Still forward press, nor never tire! The possible, with steadfast trust, Resolve should be by the forelock grasp. Then she will ne'er let go her clasp, And labors on, because she must.
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Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.
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Ah! my poor brain is racked and crazed, My spirit and senses amazed!
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The bed of flowers Loosens amain, The beauteous snowdrops Droop o'er the plain. The crocus opens Its glowing bud, Like emeralds others, Others, like blood. With saucy gesture Primroses flare, And roguish violets, Hidden with care; And whatsoever There stirs and strives, The Spring's contented, If works and thrives.
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The thought of death leaves me in perfect peace, for I have a firm conviction that our spirit is a being of indestructible nature; it works on from eternity to eternity, it is like the sun, which though it seems to set to our mortal eyes, does not really set, but shines on perpetually.
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No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.
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A man would create another man if one did not already exist, but a woman might live an eternity without even thinking of reproducing her own sex.
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Fret not over the irretrievable, but ever act as if thy life were just begun.
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Ich singe, wie der Vogel singtDer in den Zweigen wohnet.
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Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him!
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Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
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Poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere, and at all times, in hundreds and hundreds of men.
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Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.