Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.
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Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.
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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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Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
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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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The desire to explain what is simple by what is complex, what is easy by what is difficult, is a calamity.
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No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.
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Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything.
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The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.
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Some of our weaknesses are born in us, others are the result of education; it is a question which of the two gives us most trouble.
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Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.
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There is no remedy but love for the great superiority of others.
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If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
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The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
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It seems to me that every phenomenon, every fact, itself is the really interesting object. Whoever explains it, or connects it with other events, usually only amuses himself or makes sport of us, as, for instance, the naturalist or historian. But a single action or event is interesting, not because it is explainable, but because it is true.
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The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.
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Superstition is part of the poetry of life.
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As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.
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To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.
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Alas! how much there is in education, and in our social institutions, to prepare us and our children for insanity.
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Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.
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Es gibt kein äußeres Zeichen der Höflichkeit, das nicht einen tiefen sittlichen Grund hätte. Die rechte Erziehung wäre, welche dieses Zeichen und den Grund zugleich überlieferte.
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Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.