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To me the external existence of my soul is proved from my idea of activity. If I work incessantly until my death, nature will give me another form of existence when the present can no longer sustain my spirit.

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
Form
Longer
Give
Present
Soul
Existence
Ideas
Idea
Incessantly
Giving
Death
Sustain
Work
Spirit
Proved
Another
External
Nature
Activity

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Man knows himself only insofar as he knows the world, becoming aware of it if only within himself, and of himself self only within it. Each new subject, well observed, opens up within us a new organ of thought.
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The artist has a twofold relation to nature he is at once her master and her slave.
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The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind.
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When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.
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Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.
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Translators can be considered as busy matchmakers who praise as extremely desirable a half-veiled beauty. They arouse an irresistible yearning for the original.
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I have found a paper of mine among some others in which I call architecture 'petrified music.' Really there is something in this the tone of mind produced by architecture approaches the effect of music.
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Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
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What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive.
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Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.
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Most pioneers are at the mercy of doubt at the beginning, whether of their worth, of their theories, or of the whole enigmatic field in which they labour.
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Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
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To act is easy, to think is hard to act according to our thought is troublesome.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The realization of the self is only possible if one is productive, if one can give birth to one's own potentialities.
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First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
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It is not given to us to grasp the truth, which is identical with the divine, directly. We perceive it only in reflection, in example and symbol, in singular and related appearances. It meets us as a kind of life which is incomprehensible to us, and yet we cannot free ourselves from the desire to comprehend it.
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One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands so seldom of others the impossible, but demands just that of the portraitists.
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Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.
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Higher yet and higher out of clouds and night, nearer yet and nearer rising to the light - light, serene and holy where my soul may rest, purified and lowly, sanctified and blest.
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If you are convinced of a matter, you must take sides or you don't deserve to succeed.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe