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The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.

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
Peace
Misfortunes
Enjoy
Produced
Art
Account
States
Accounts
Must
Nobody
Every
Wants
Reproduce
Life
Everybody
Misfortune
State
Govern

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
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Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.
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Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.
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It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel - they get to know each other better.
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Modern poets mix too much water with their ink. [Ger., Neuere Poeten thun viel Wasser in die Tinte.]
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It would not be worth your while to reach the age of seventy if all the wisdom of the world were to be foolishness before God.
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If you inquire what people are like here, I must answer, The same as everywhere.
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The history of a man is in his character.
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Everything factual is, in a sense, theory. The blue of the sky exhibits the basic laws of chromatics. There is no sense in looking for something behind phenomena: they are theory.
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Many young painters would never have taken their pencils in hand if they could have felt, known, and understood, early enough, what really produced a master like Raphael.
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What men usually say of misfortunes, that they never come alone, may with equal truth be said of good fortune nay, of other circumstances which gather round us in a harmonious way, whether it arise from a kind of fatality, or that man has the power of attracting to himself things that are mutually related.
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The whole art of living consists in giving up existence in order to exist.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
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As all Nature's thousands changes But one changeless God proclaim So in Art's wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene through time and season Stands aye in loveliness.
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We rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our ignorance.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.
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It is one of Heaven's best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one's arms.
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None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.
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The spectacle of Nature is always new, for she is always renewing the spectators. Life is her most exquisite invention and death is her expert contrivance to get plenty of life.
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It is not enough to have knowledge one must apply it. It is not enough to have wishes one must also accomplish it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe