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It is as certain as it is strange that truth and error come from one and the same source. Thus it is that we are often not at liberty to do violence to error, because at the same time we do violence to truth.

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
Certain
Errors
Come
Thus
Time
Source
Strange
Violence
Liberty
Often
Truth
Error

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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On every mountain height is rest.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Nature! We are enveloped and embraced by her, incapable of emerging from her and incapable of entering her more deeply. Unbidden and unwarned, she receives us into the circuits of her dance, drifting onward with us herself, until we grow tired and drop from her arms.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The best benefit we derive from history is the enthusiasm it excites.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Why should we not recognize in the lightning, the thunder, and the storm wind, the approach of an overwhelming Power, and in the scent of flowers and the gently rustling zephyr the presence of a Being full of love?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To blow is not to play on the flute you must move the fingers. [Ger., Blasen ist nicht floten, ihr musst die Finger bewegen.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves. [Ger., Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige die uns lehrt uns selbst zu regieren.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Mere curiosity adds wings to every step.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Normally, the sciences distance themselves from life and the return to it via a detour.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Who can think wise or stupid things at all that were not thought already in the past.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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A purpose you impart is no longer your own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To rule is easy, to govern difficult.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is related of an Englishman that he hanged himself to avoid the daily task of dressing and undressing.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe