Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 10

• To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Understanding, Half, Wells

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• Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Harsh, Teach

  "Iphigenia in Tauris". Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Act 4, Scene 4, 1786.

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• To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Advice, Criticism

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• Whoever makes it a rule to test action by thought, thought by action, cannot falter, and if he does, will soon find his way back to the right road.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Doe, Tests, Way

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

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• One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Loneliness, Inspiration, Being Alone

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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

  Fate, Hands, Law

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• There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on how one looks at it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Views, Insignificant Things, Literature

  "Goethe's World View: Presented in His Reflections and Maxims".

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• There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Life, Perseverance

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• Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Moving, Taken

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• The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Self Worth, Men, Thinking

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• Every solution of a problem is a new problem.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Problem, Solutions

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• It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Truth, Lying, Errors

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• Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and the we'll need no other light.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Light, Shining, Needs

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• Each one of us must carry within the proof of immortality, it cannot be given from outside of us. To be sure, everything in natureis change but behind the change there is something eternal.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Change, Immortality, Proof

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• The greatest joy of a thinking man is to have searched the explored and to quietly revere the unexplored.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Thinking, Joy

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• Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Strong, Desire, Distrust

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• And what does really matter? That is easy: thinking and doing, doing and thinking--and these are the sum of all wisdom. . . . Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Moving, Thinking

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

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• Our passions are the true phoenixes; when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Passion, Phoenix, Ashes

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• It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Time, Age, Faults

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• For a brave man deserves a well-endowed girl.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Girl, Men, Brave

  "Hermann and Dorothea". Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, III. 19, October 1797.

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• Riches amassed in haste will diminish; but those collected by hand and little by little will multiply.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hands, Haste, Littles

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• To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Knowing Who You Are, Goal

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• Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Hope, Anticipation

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• The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Clever, Drinking, Men

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, W. B. Rönnfeldt (1898*). “Goethe's Criticisms, Reflections, and Maxims”

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• To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Easy, Threshold

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (1824). “Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels”, p.75

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