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There is nothing by which men display their character so much as in what they consider ridiculous... Fools and sensible men are equally innocuous. It is in the half fools and the half wise that the great danger lies.

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
Half
Equally
Character
Ridiculous
Nothing
Consider
Great
Lies
Innocuous
Much
Fool
Deceit
Men
Danger
Fools
Wise
Display
Lying
Sensible

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Time itself is an element.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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A king there was once reigning, Who had a goodly flea, Him loved he without feigning, As his own son were he!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Thou art in the end what thou art. Put on wigs with millions of curls, set thy foot upon ell-high rocks. Thou abidest ever--what thou art.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.
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.
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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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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Stones are mute teachers they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The flowers are full of honey, but only the bee finds out the sweetness.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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For to give is the business of the rich. [Lat., Denn Geben ist Sache des Reichen.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What a man does not understand, he does not possess.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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No wonder we are all more or less pleased with mediocrity, since it leaves us at rest, and gives the same comfortable feeling as when one associates with his equals.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The artist has a twofold relation to nature he is at once her master and her slave.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe