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It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.

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
Actually
Government
People
Maxim
Maxims
Treat
Treats
Wise

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Man, be he who he may, experiences a last piece of good fortune and a last day. [Ger., Der Mensch erfahrt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Gluck und einen letzten Tag.]
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Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.
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On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is nothing more frightful than for a teacher to know only what his scholars are intended to know.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Whatever you can do or dream, begin it.
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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God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Old age is never honored among us, but only indulged, as childhood is and old men lose one of the most precious rights of man,--that of being judged by their peers.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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[Nature's] crown is Love. Only through Love can we come near her. She puts gulfs between all things, and all things strive to be interfused. She isolates everything, that she may draw everything together. With a few draughts from the cup of Love she repays for a life full of trouble.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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For what one has in black and white, One can carry home in comfort.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences progress in even greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen itself as much as it desires: beyond the elevation and moral culture of Christianity, as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Beauty and Genius must be kept afar if one would avoid becoming their slave.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and its activity will continue through eternity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe