Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Tis Lilith. Who? Adam's first wife is she. Beware the lure within her lovely tresses, The splendid sole adornment of her hair; When she succeeds therewith a youth to snare, Not soon again she frees him from her jesses.
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Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing and of what is not knowable.
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Die Welt ist eine Glocke, die einen Riß hat: sie klappert, aber klingt nicht.
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People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.
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What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.
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In art it's not the thinking that does the job, but making.
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What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.
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Willing is not enough, we must do.
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One doesn't always lose when one has to do without.
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When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.
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Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
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Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
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Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
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Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
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Lay hold of life with both hands, whenever thou mayest seize it, it is interesting.
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The little man is still a man.
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At bottom, no real object is unpoetical, if the poet knows how to use it properly.
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We can most safely achieve truly universal tolerance when we respect that which is characteristic in the individual and in nations, clinging, though, to the conviction that the truly meritorious is unique by belonging to all of mankind.
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If I say to the moment: 'Stay now! You are so beautiful'!
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Let us live, while we are alive!
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The world is so great and rich, and life so full of variety, that you can never lack occasions for poems.
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Daily life is more instructive than the most effective book.
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It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.
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Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal... It is the most perpetual people of the earth.