Quote

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

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Culture which smooth the whole world licks, Also unto the devil sticks.
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Knowing is not enough we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Art is constitutive-the artist determines beauty. He does not take it over.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The world only goes forward because of those who oppose 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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How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new-- Important matter yet attractive too? [Ger., Wie machen wir's, dass alles frisch und neu Und mit Bedeutung auch gefallig sei?]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We will burn that bridge when we come to it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Truth is a torch, but a huge one, and so it is only with blinking eyes what we all of us try to get past it, in actual terror of being burnt.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Every beginning is cheerful.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Lose this day loitering 'Twill be the same old story, Tomorrow and the next, Even more dilatory. Whatever you would do, Or dream of doing, begin it! Boldness has power, genius, and magic in it. Begin it now.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Action has magic, grace and power in it.
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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One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is nothing more frightful than for a teacher to know only what his scholars are intended to know.
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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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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A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.
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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It is in the half fools and the half wise that the greatest danger lies.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe