Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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True observers of nature, although they may think differently, will still agree that everything that is, everything that is observable as a phenomenon, can only exhibit itself in one of two ways. It is either a primal polarity that is able to unify, or it is a primal unity that is able to divide. The operation of nature consists of splitting the united or uniting the divided; this is the eternal movement of systole and diastole of the heartbeat, the inhalation and exhalation of the world in which we live, act, and exist.
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My inheritance how lordly wide and fair; Time is my fair seed-field, to Time I'm heir.
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You really only know when you know little. Doubt grows with knowledge.
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Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.
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A joy shared is a joy doubled.
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Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he reflects he is a child.
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Ah, how often I've cursed those foolish pages,That showed my youthful sufferings to everyone!If Werther had been my brother, and I'd killed him,His sad ghost could hardly have persecuted me more.
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Blut ist ein ganz besondrer Saft.
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Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.
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The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.
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One must be something to be able to do something.
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However often we turn to it the Qur'an at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence... Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime - Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence.
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The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
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Belief is not the beginning of knowledge - it is the end.
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No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.
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In limitations he first shows himself the master,And the law can only bring us freedom.
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Mehr Licht!
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You are, when all is done-just what you are.
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So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein!
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Our senses don't deceive us: our judgment does.
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He is a prophet and not a poet and therefore his Koran is to be seen as Divine Law, and not as a book of a human being made for education or entertainment.
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A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up.
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A distracted existence leads us to no goal.
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Microscopes and telescopes really confuse our minds.