Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 12

• Doubt can only be removed by action.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Motivational, Fear, Doubt

  Thomas Carlyle, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, Friedrich Heinrich Karl La Motte-Fouqué (Freiherr de), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Karl August Musäus (1827). “Wilhelm Meister's travels”, p.8

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• Do the duty which lies nearest to thee.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Lying, Thee, Duty

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• The art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Life Lesson, Learning

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• The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Character, Chiefs, Aim

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• Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Magic, Genius, Boldness

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• A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Faults, Lovable

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• True observers of nature, although they may think differently, will still agree that everything that is, everything that is observable as a phenomenon, can only exhibit itself in one of two ways. It is either a primal polarity that is able to unify, or it is a primal unity that is able to divide. The operation of nature consists of splitting the united or uniting the divided; this is the eternal movement of systole and diastole of the heartbeat, the inhalation and exhalation of the world in which we live, act, and exist.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Heart, Thinking

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• The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Lasts, Advantage, Written Word

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.134, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Age, Youth, Abundance

  Wahrheit und Dichtung (Poetry and Truth) pt. 2, ch. 6 (1811 - 1833)

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• Only law can give us freedom.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Freedom, Law, Giving

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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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• No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge. The same man will, indeed, often see and judge the same things differently on different occasions: early convictions must give way to more mature ones. Nevertheless, may not the opinions that a man holds and expresses withstand all trials, if he only remains true to himself and others?

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Two, Giving

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Gage (1980). “Goethe on Art”, p.5, Univ of California Press

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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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• 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

  Genius, Lasts, Firsts

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• What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Literature, Ifs

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• Common sense is the genius of humanity.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Meaningful, Common Sense, Humanity

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• Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Humor, Genius, Elements

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Stuart Blackie (1883). “The Wisdom of Goethe”, Edinburgh, W. Blackwood

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• It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Hero, Reason, Butlers

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• It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Fear, Fate

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• There speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Peers, Noble

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• The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, Originality, Said

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• I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Education, Hate, Activity

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• The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Time, Destiny, People

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• Patriotism corrupts history.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Politics

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

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• To make something you have to be something.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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