Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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For that is love's nature that it lays claim to exclusive right and that all other claims are nil.
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As man is, so is his God. And thus is God oft strangely odd.
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Daily life is more instructive than the most effective book.
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And what does really matter? That is easy: thinking and doing, doing and thinking--and these are the sum of all wisdom. . . . Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out.
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What is now the foliage moving? Air is still, and hush'd the breeze, Sultriness, this fullness loving, Through the thicket, from the trees. Now the eye at once gleams brightly, See! the infant band with mirth Moves and dances nimbly, lightly, As the morning gave it birth, Flutt'ring two and two o'er earth.
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Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
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We talk too much. We should talk less and draw more.
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You don't have to travel around the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere.
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War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.
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Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. ...For this reason, one ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
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It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.
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Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.
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Every idea appears at first as a strange visitor, and when it begins to be realized, it is hardly distinguishable from fantasy.
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The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.
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If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
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People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.
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Mystery is truth's dancing partner.
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What a day it is when we must envy the men in their graves.
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Solitude is fine when you are at peace with yourself and have something definite to do.
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It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.
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Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
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All professional men are handicapped by not being allowed to ignore things which are useless.
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Since I have heard often enough that everyone in the end has his own religion, nothing seemed more natural to me than to fashion my own.
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What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.