Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Mathematics has the completely false reputation of yielding infallible conclusions. Its infallibility is nothing but identity. Two times two is not four, but it is just two times two, and that is what we call four for short. But four is nothing new at all. And thus it goes on and on in its conclusions, except that in the higher formulas the identity fades out of sight.
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What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
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Don't feel guilty if you don't immediately love your stepchildren as you do your own, or as much as you think you should. Everyoneneeds time to adjust to the new family, adults included. There is no such thing as an "instant parent." Actually, no concrete object lies outside of the poetic sphere as long as the poet knows how to use the object properly.
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To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.
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Yet here I stand poor fool what more, not one wit wiser than before.
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True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.
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Energy will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.
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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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After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end of being poets. Poets send their creations into the world, it is up to the reader, the aesthetician, and the critic to determine what they wanted to say with their creations.
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Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hopes of new pleasures, is it worth while to dress and undress? Does the sun shine on me today that I may reflect on yesterday? That I may endeavor to foresee and control what can neither be foreseen nor controlled - the destiny of tomorrow?
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Only that type of story deserves to be called moral that shows us that one has the power within oneself to act, out of the conviction that there is something better, even against one's own inclination.
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If you are convinced of a matter, you must take sides or you don't deserve to succeed.
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Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.
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It is in the half fools and the half wise that the greatest danger lies.
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Mystery is truth's dancing partner.
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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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Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.
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Nature does not suffer her veil to be taken from her, and what she does not choose to reveal to the spirit, thou wilt not wrest from her by levers and screws.
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Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.
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Doubt grows with knowledge.
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To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone.
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He alone deserves liberty and life who daily must win them anew.
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An absent friend gives us friendly company when we are well assured of his happiness.