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The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth. [Ger., Das erste und letzte, was vom Genie gefordert wird, ist Wahreits-Liebe.]

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
Truth
Firsts
First
Genie
Thing
Genies
Love
Required
Genius
Lasts
Last

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Who strives always to the utmost, him can we save.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The rabble also vent their rage in words. [Ger., Es macht das Volk sich auch mit Worten Lust.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I curse all negative purism that tells me not to use a word from another language that either expresses something that my own language cannot or does that in a more delicate manner.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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two souls, alas, are housed within my breast, and each will wrestle for the mastery there.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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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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There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Self knowledge is best learned not by contemplation, but by action.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard to act according to our thought is troublesome. Every beginning is cheerful: the threshold is the place of expectation.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The summit charms us, the steps to it do not with the heights before our eyes, we like to linger in the plain. It is only a part of art that can be taught but the artist needs the whole. He who is only half instructed speaks much and is always wrong who knows it wholly is content with acting and speaks seldom or late.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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A man is really alive only when he delights in the good-will of others.
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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From desire I plunge to its fulfilment, where I long once more for desire.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Voluntary dependence is the wonderful form of existence, and how could that be possible without love?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The iron hand of necessity commands, and her stern decree is supreme law, to which the gods even must submit. In deep silence rules the uncounselled sister of eternal fate. Whatever she lays upon thee, endure perform whatever she commands.
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.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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It is natural to man to regard himself as the final cause of creation.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe