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One is led astray alike by sympathy and coldness, by praise and by blame

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
Sympathy
Blame
Praise
Coldness
Astray
Alike

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Treat a person as they are, they will remain so. Treat a person the way that person can be and is capable of being and that person will become as he or she can be and should be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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When I say to the Moment flying 'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!' Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What people call the spirit of the times is mostly their own spirit in which the times mirror themselves.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot that it is securely founded that it be successfully executed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Nothing is more odious than the majority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and submissive weaklings, and a mass of men who trot after them without thinking, or knowing their own minds.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, Were he living I would make him a king but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What a mighty spirit in a narrow bosom. [Ger., Welch' hoher Geist in einer engen Brust.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Thou must (in commanding and winning, or serving and losing, suffering or triumphing) be either anvil or hammer.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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On all the peaks lies peace.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If you want to understand poetry, You have to go to its origin, If you want to understand the poet, You have to go to the Poet's home.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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People always fancy that we must become old to become wise but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep ourselves as wise as we were.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Wind is the loving Wooer of waters Wind blends together Billows all-foaming. Spirit of man, Thou art like unto water! Fortune of man, Thou art like unto wind!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We amuse ourselves painting our prison-walls with bright figures and brilliant landscapes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To rule is easy, to govern difficult.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe