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If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Age: 82 †
Born: 1749
Born: August 22
Died: 1832
Died: March 22
Aphorist
Art Critic
Art Theorist
Autobiographer
Botanist
Composer
Diarist
Diplomat
Jurist
Lawyer
Librarian
Librettist
Literary
Frankfurt/Main
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Goethe
goethe
johann wolfgang von goethe
joh. wolfg. von goethe
j. w. von goethe
Writes
Sarcastic
Funny
Book
Enough
Writing
Men
Guesses
Sarcasm

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.
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
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Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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[Nature's] crown is Love. Only through Love can we come near her. She puts gulfs between all things, and all things strive to be interfused. She isolates everything, that she may draw everything together. With a few draughts from the cup of Love she repays for a life full of trouble.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Stones are mute teachers they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If I love you, what business is it of yours?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I hold to faith in the divine love - which, so many years ago for a brief moment in a little corner of the earth, walked about as a man bearing the name of Jesus Christ - as the foundation on which alone my happiness rests.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn't every nationhave its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The present moment is a powerful goddess.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He who cannot love must learn to flatter.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The rainbow mirrors human aims and action. Think, and more clearly wilt thou grasp it, seeing Life is but light in many-hued reflection.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Higher yet and higher out of clouds and night, nearer yet and nearer rising to the light - light, serene and holy where my soul may rest, purified and lowly, sanctified and blest.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Hold your powers together for something good and let everything go that is for you without result and is not suited to you.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe