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Whoever would do good in the world, ought not to deal in censure. We ought not to destroy, but rather construct.

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
Library
Deal
Deals
Censure
Ought
Construct
Rather
Constructs
Good
Whoever
Would
World
Destroy

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Whenever I hear people talking about liberal ideas, I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive.
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We're really up against it, we poor women: A bachelor's a hard thing to convert
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What you desire when young, you have in abundance when old.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The hardest thing is to see what's under your very eyes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What in us the women leave uncultivated, children cultivate when we retain them near us.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Once you have missed the first buttonhole, you'll never manage to button up.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It matters little whether a man be mathematically or philologically or artistically cultivated, so he be but cultivated.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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English plays, Atrocious in content, Absurd in form, Objectionable in action, Execrable EnglishTheatre.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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New inventions can and will be made however, nothing new can be thought of that concerns moral man. Everything has already been thought and said which at best we can express in different forms and give new expressions to.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I nothing had, and yet enough for youth--Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion,--O, give me back my youth again!
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
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Higher yet and higher out of clouds and night, nearer yet and nearer rising to the light - light, serene and holy where my soul may rest, purified and lowly, sanctified and blest.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Manners form the great charm of women.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The real scholar learns how to evolve the unknown from the known, and draws near the master.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is the intermixing of different genres.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Money lost, something lost. Honor lost, much lost. Courage lost, everything lost-better you were never born
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Some books seem to have been written, not to teach us anything, but to let us know that the author has known something.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Rest not Life is sweeping by go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe