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Before you can do something, you must first be something.

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
Must
Something
Spiritual
Inspirational
Action
Firsts
First

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Just trust yourself and you'll learn the art of living.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his image. [Ger., Das Betragen ist ein Spiegel in welchem jeder sein Bild zeigt.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Does not man lack the force at the very point where he needs it most? And when he soars upward in joy, or sinks down in suffering, is not checked in both, is he not returned again to the dull, cold sphere of awareness, just when he was longing to lose himself in the fullness of the infinite.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The iron hand of necessity commands, and her stern decree is supreme law, to which the gods even must submit. In deep silence rules the uncounselled sister of eternal fate. Whatever she lays upon thee, endure perform whatever she commands.
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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Nothing is true, but that which is simple.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Every step of life shows much caution is required.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Were not the eye made to receive the rays of the sun, it could not behold the sun if the peculiar power of God lay not in us, how could the godlike charm us?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What sort of faults may we retain, nay, even cherish in ourselves? Those faults which are rather pleasant than offensive to others.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If the whole world I once could see On free soil stand, with the people free Then to the moment might I say, Linger awhile. . .so fair thou art.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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For what one has in black and white, One can carry home in comfort.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Oh how sweet it is to hear one's own convictions from another's lips.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The coward only threatens when he is safe.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Every solution of a problem is a new problem.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe