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And I like those authors best whose scenes describe my own situation in life-- and the friends who are about me whose stories touch me with interest, from resembling my own homely existence.

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
Stories
Describe
Best
Touch
Life
Whose
Like
Scene
Existence
Resembling
Situation
Homely
Friends
Authors
Interest
Scenes

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Give shape, artist! don't talk! Your poem be but a breath.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Action has magic, grace and power in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The summit charms us, the steps to it do not with the heights before our eyes, we like to linger in the plain. It is only a part of art that can be taught but the artist needs the whole. He who is only half instructed speaks much and is always wrong who knows it wholly is content with acting and speaks seldom or late.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Here too it’s masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind. I grasped a lovely masked procession, And caught things from a horror show… I’d gladly settle for a false impression, If it would last a little longer, though.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What right those who govern have to govern they don't question, they just govern. Whether the people have a right to depose them that doesn't concern them. All they are concerned with is that the people will not be tempted to depose them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves. [Ger., Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige die uns lehrt uns selbst zu regieren.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Modern poets mix too much water with their ink. [Ger., Neuere Poeten thun viel Wasser in die Tinte.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away and leave no trace behind! How few yield any fruit,--and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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When you are in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. We don't get to know people when they come to us we must go to them to find out what they are like.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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As man is, so is his God. And thus is God oft strangely odd.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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When two men quarrel, who owns the cooler head is the more to blame.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe