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Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.

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
Stupidity
Ought
Fear
Reason
Humans
Hard
Fatal

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred...unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Here too it’s masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind. I grasped a lovely masked procession, And caught things from a horror show… I’d gladly settle for a false impression, If it would last a little longer, though.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To blow is not to play on the flute you must move the fingers. [Ger., Blasen ist nicht floten, ihr musst die Finger bewegen.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Nothing is more damaging to the truth than an old error.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I hold to faith in the divine love - which, so many years ago for a brief moment in a little corner of the earth, walked about as a man bearing the name of Jesus Christ - as the foundation on which alone my happiness rests.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Superstition is part of the poetry of life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Beauty can never really understand itself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Collectors are happy people.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Live dangerously and you live right.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Nature does not suffer her veil to be taken from her, and what she does not choose to reveal to the spirit, thou wilt not wrest from her by levers and screws.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times... Man is a dialogue between nature and God. On other planets this dialogue will doubtless be of a higher and profounder character. What is lacking is Self-Knowledge. After that the rest will follow.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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To have more, you must first be more.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe