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No wonder we are all more or less pleased with mediocrity, since it leaves us at rest, and gives the same comfortable feeling as when one associates with his equals.

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
Gives
Rest
Equals
Wonder
Conceit
Since
Associates
Feeling
Pleased
Less
Mediocrity
Feelings
Leaves
Giving
Comfortable

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Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows.
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In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!
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Personality is everything in art and poetry.
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Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease. [Ger., Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.]
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The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.
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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.
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Riches amassed in haste will diminish but those collected by hand and little by little will multiply.
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A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
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The clever reader who is capable or reading between these lines what does not stand written in them but is nevertheless implied will be able to form some conception.
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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?]
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It is equally a mistake to hold one's self too high, or to rate one's self too cheap.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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What is predestination? Answer: God is more powerful and wiser than we are, therefore he deals with us according to his pleasure.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Wisdom is only found in truth. [Ger., Die Weisheit ist nur in der Wahrheit.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking. [Ger., Gewohnlich glaubt der Mensch, wenn er nur Worte hort, Es musse sich dabei doch auch was denken.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The passions are like those demons with which Afrasahiab sailed down the Orus. Our only safety consists in keeping them asleep. If they we are lost.
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The march of intellect, which licks all the world into shape, has even reached the devil.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.
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If there is confusion in your head and in your heart, what more do you want! A man who no longer loves and no longer errs should have himself buried straight away.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe