Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
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The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.
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Animals, we have been told, are taught by their organs. Yes, I would add, and so are men, but men have this further advantage that they can also teach their organs in return.
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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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All truths are old, and all that we have to do is recognize and utter them anew.
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Can a sparrow know how a stork feels?
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If you want to make life easy, make it hard.
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It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.
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The trouble is small, the fun is great.
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Superstition is part of the poetry of life.
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Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.
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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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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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There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.
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The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.
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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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Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything.
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Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.
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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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Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.
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Personality is everything in art and poetry.
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He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.
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Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.