Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.
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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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Voluntary dependence is the wonderful form of existence, and how could that be possible without love?
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Men are much more apt to agree in what they do than in what they think.
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Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.
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Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism.
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If you have science and art, You also have religion; But if you don't have them, You better have religion.
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Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre.
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What is the path? There is no path. On into the unknown.
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Any trifle is enough to entertain two lovers.
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Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
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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.
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Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
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Hatred is partial, but love is still more so.
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If you live criticizing people, you won't have time to love them.
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Even dirt glitters when the sun is shining upon it.
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A person hears only what they understand.
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Nothing is more dangerous than solitude.
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Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
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Der Irrthum verhält sich gegen das Wahre wie der Schlaf gegen das Wachen. Ich habe bemerkt, daß man aus dem Irren sich wie erquickt wieder zu dem Wahren hinwende.
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I do not now begin, - I still adore Her whom I early cherish'd in my breast; Then once again with prudence dispossess'd, And to whose heart I'm driven back once more. The love of Petrarch, that all-glorious love, Was unrequited, and, alas, full sad.
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I must consider more closely this cycle of good and bad days which I find coursing within myself. Passion, attachment, the urge to action, inventiveness, performance, order all alternate and keep their orbit; cheerfulness, vigor, energy, flexibility and fatigue, serenity as well as desire. Nothing disturbs the cycle for I lead a simple life, but I must still find the time and order in which I rotate.
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Hypotheses are the scaffolds which are erected in front of a building and removedd when the building is completed. They are indispensable to the worker; but the worker must not mistake the scaffolding for the building.
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The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.