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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 affecting the whole body of science, known, it is true, to men of insight, but not generally admitted.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Fools and wise men are equally harmless. It is the half-fools and half-wise that are dangerous.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Do not, I beg you, look for anything behind phenomena. They are themselves their own lesson.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
I am the Spirit that denies.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
The few of understanding, vision rare, Who veiled not from the herd their hearts, but tried, Poor generous fools, to lay their feelings bare, Them have men always burnt and crucified.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
The society of women is the element of good manners.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Ich bedauere die Menschen, welche von der Vergänglichkeit der Dinge viel Wesens machen und sich in Betrachtung irdischer Nichtigkeit verlieren. Sind wir ja eben deßhalb da, um das Vergängliche unvergänglich zu machen; das kann ja nur dadurch geschehen, wenn man beides zu schätzen weiß.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Necessity is cruel, but it is the only test of inward strength. Every fool may live according to his own likings.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Microscopes and telescopes really confuse our minds.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Yet through delivery orators succeed, I feel that I am far behind indeed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Die Kunst an und für sich selbst ist edel; deßhalb fürchtet sich der Künstler nicht vor dem Gemeinen. Ja indem er es aufnimmt, ist es schon geadelt, und so sehen wir die größten Künstler mit Kühnheit ihr Majestätsrecht ausüben.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
A violet on the meadow grew, That no one saw, that no one knew, It was a modest flower. A shepherdess pass'd by that way. Light footed, pretty and so gay; That way she came, Softly warbling forth her lay.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
What man does not know, Or has not thought of, Wanders in the night Through the labyrinth of the mind.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
O'er all the hilltopsIs quiet now,In all the treetopsHearest thouHardly a breath;The birds are asleep in the trees:Wait; soon like theseThou too shalt rest.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Happy the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
The highest cannot be spoken; it can only be acted.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Die Wahrheit widerspricht unserer Natur, der Irrthum nicht, und zwar aus einem sehr einfachen Grunde: die Wahrheit fordert, daß wir uns für beschränkt erkennen follen, der Irrthum schmeichelt uns. wir seien auf ein- oder die andere Weise unbegränzt.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe