Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The most difficult thing is what is thought to be the simplest; to really see the things which are before your eyes.
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Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.
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The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.
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Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.
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Belief is not the beginning of knowledge - it is the end.
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Yes, my love, who soever lives, loses, . . . but he also wins.
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Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.
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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.
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People will allow their faults to be shown them; they will let themselves be punished for them; they will patiently endure many things because of them; they only become impatient when they have to lay them aside.
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In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
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Let the noble man Be generous and good, Tirelessly achieving What is just and useful: Let him be a model For those beings whom he surmises.
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A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.
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A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.
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The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.
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Do not hurry; do not rest.
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The most congenial social occasions are those ruled by cheerful deference of each for all.
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Zwey Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust.
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The nude is the perfect expression of freedom. Freedom to be.
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All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.
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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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Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.
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Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look round.
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Hypotheses are only the pieces of scaffolding which are erected round a building during the course of construction, and which are taken away as soon as the edifice is completed.
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There is no outward sign of true courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation.