Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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No one knows what he is doing so long as he is acting rightly; but of what is wrong one is always conscious.
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Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.
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Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap.
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Alas, I have studied philosophy, the law as well as medicine, and to my sorrow, theology; studied them well with ardent zeal, yet here I am, a wretched fool, no wiser than I was before.
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If you want to make life easy, make it hard.
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We can really respect a man only if he doesn't always look out for himself.
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Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.
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National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten thearrival of that age.
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Experiments are mediators between nature and idea.
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Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
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In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.
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Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions.
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Thus I reel from desire to fulfillment and in fulfillment languish for desire.
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The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity--to see him taken up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling miserably over everything.
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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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Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.
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Even dirt glitters when the sun is shining upon it.
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The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.
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No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.
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The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
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We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.
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Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.
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What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
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I always had an aversion to your apostles of freedom; each but sought for himself freedom to do what he liked.