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The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.

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
Known
Knowledge
Compelled
Hands
Folly
Every
Thinks
Men
Piece
Think
Pieces
Thinking
Greatest
People
Hand

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When toward the Devil's Hose we tread, Woman's a thousand steps behind. [Ger., Denn geht es zu des Bosen Haus Das Weib hat tausend Schritt voraus.]
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Whoever strikes at marriage either by word or act undermines the foundation of all moral society.
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Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard to act according to our thought is troublesome. Every beginning is cheerful: the threshold is the place of expectation.
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All professional men are handicapped by not being allowed to ignore things which are useless.
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Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences progress in even greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires: beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go.
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Whatever is the object of a saint's hope is the subject of his prayer.
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Mozart is a human incarnation of the divine force of creation.
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I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and can seize and use them.
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The world is for thousands a freak show the images flicker past and vanish the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently.
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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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In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.
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A noble soul alone can noble souls attract And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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two souls, alas, are housed within my breast, and each will wrestle for the mastery there.
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He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility and poverty, and, despite mockery and disgrace, wretchedness, suffering, and death, as things divine.
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Who is the happiest man? He who is alive to the merit of others, and can rejoice in their enjoyment as if it were his own.
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Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.
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Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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This is the true measure of love, When we believe that we alone can love, That no one could ever have loved so before us, And that no one will ever love in the same way after us.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe