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When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.

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
Men
Treat
Treats
Worse
Already
Inspiration
Peace
Inspirational
Make
Potentially

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Tis Lilith. Who? Adam's first wife is she. Beware the lure within her lovely tresses, The splendid sole adornment of her hair When she succeeds therewith a youth to snare, Not soon again she frees him from her jesses.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I have found among my papers a sheet . . . in which I call architecture frozen music.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Errors belong to libraries truth, to the human mind.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Wouldst thou ever roam abroad? See, what is good lies by thy side. Only learn to catch happiness, for happiness is ever by you.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is nothing more frightful than an active ignorance. [Ger., Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine thatige Unwissenheit.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Everything in the world may be endured, except only a succession of prosperous days. [Ger., Alles in der Welt lasst sich ertragen, Nur nicht eine Reihe von schonen Tagen.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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One is never satisfied with the portrait of a person that one knows.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Everyone only hears what he understands.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Each indecision brings its own delays and days are lost lamenting over lost days... What you can do or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has magic, power, and genius in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Man believes himself always greater than he is, and is esteemed less than he is worth.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Still this planet's soil for noble deeds grants scope abounding.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Writing is busy idleness.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe