Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.
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I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who made mankind and knows how to round off the corners.
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Let no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each one perfect in himself.
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The day is of infinite length for him who knows how to appreciate and use it.
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Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.
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On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.
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I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wants.
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Passions are defects or virtues in the highest power.
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Wanted: A dog that neither barks nor bites, eats broken glass and shits diamonds.
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None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
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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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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
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All our knowledge is symbolic.
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Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
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All that is transitory is but a metaphor.
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A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.
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The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
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To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.
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There is no remedy but love for the great superiority of others.
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As soon as you are in a social setting, you better take away the key to the lock of your heart and pocket it; those who leave thekey in the lock are fools.
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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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It will be! the mass is working clearer! Conviction gathers, truer, nearer! The mystery which for Man in Nature lies We dare to test, by knowledge led; And that which she was wont to organize We crystallize, instead.
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A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.
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Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action.