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Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the chief matter. Action can only be only understood and represented by the spirit.

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
Matter
Chiefs
Something
Understood
Good
Words
Action
Spirit
Cannot
Represented
Best
Explained
Better
Chief

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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A word spoken is a terrible thing when it suddenly utters what the heart has long allowed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Human life-everybody lives it, but only to a few is it known.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To the man of thought almost nothing is really ridiculous.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Who enslaves another's manhood with weak human power alone, Lays a heavier yoke of bondage thoughtlessly upon his own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I let everyone follow his own bent, that I may be free to follow mine.
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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Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Gray are all the theories, But green is the tree of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away and leave no trace behind! How few yield any fruit,--and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Judge a man's character by what he finds ridiculous.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Make the most of time, it flies away so fast yet method will teach you to win time.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The arts are the salt of the earth as salt relates to food, the arts relate to technology.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Poor fool! in whose petty estimation all things are little.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.
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