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

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Accepting good advice means nothing other than to strengthen one's own ability.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If you have science and art, You also have religion But if you don't have them, You better have religion.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Man, be he who he may, experiences a last piece of good fortune and a last day. [Ger., Der Mensch erfahrt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Gluck und einen letzten Tag.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Of the book of books most wondrous is the tender book of love.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The fine emotions whence our lives we mold Lie in the earthly tumult dumb and cold.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Then to the depths! - I could as well say height: It's all the same.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We are never deceived we deceive ourselves.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Out of moderation a pure happiness springs.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Kindness is the golden thread that holds society together.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is not given to us to grasp the truth, which is identical with the divine, directly. We perceive it only in reflection, in example and symbol, in singular and related appearances. It meets us as a kind of life which is incomprehensible to us, and yet we cannot free ourselves from the desire to comprehend it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What right those who govern have to govern they don't question, they just govern. Whether the people have a right to depose them that doesn't concern them. All they are concerned with is that the people will not be tempted to depose them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Try novelties for salesman's bait, For novelty wins everyone.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe