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Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquility of soul. Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and object are mostly hypocrites.

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
Culture
Tranquility
Ends
Observed
May
Hence
Soul
Mostly
Hypocrites
Mean
Object
Attaining
Objects
Purest
Highest
Hypocrite
Means
Piety

More quotes by 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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There is no patriotic art.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If society gives up the right to impose the death penalty, then self-help will appear again and personal vendettas will be around the corner.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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All perishable is but an allegory.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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That which is eternal in Woman lifts us above.
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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I come more and more to the conclusion that one must take the side of the minority which is always the more intelligent one.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular but reason remains ever the property of an elect few.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Lose the day loitering, 'twill be the same story To-morrow, and the next more dilatory, For indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! What you can do, or think you can, begin it! Only engage, and then the mind grows heated Begin it, and the work will be completed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To quit smoking, you must first want to quit, but then you must also do the quitting
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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How circumscribed is woman's destiny!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The present moment is a powerful goddess.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The man who acts never has any conscience no one has any conscience but the man who thinks
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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As a man is, so is his God therefore God was so often an object of mockery. [Ger., Wie einer ist, so ist sein Gott, Darum ward Gott so oft zu Spott.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe