Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 18

• Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, Past, History

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1897). “Criticisms, reflections, and maxims of Goethe: Tr., with an introduction”

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• You don't love if you don't take the beloved's faults for virtues.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Faults, Virtue

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• They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Sober, Should

  Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Marcelle Clements (2013). “The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings”, p.41, Penguin

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• To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Government, Politics, Easy

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• Whoever would do good in the world, ought not to deal in censure. We ought not to destroy, but rather construct.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Library, World, Deals

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• The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Fashion, Evil, Decision

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• The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Success, Errors, Long

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• Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Wisdom, Literature

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

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• We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Time, Yesterday, Today

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• When the boy begins to understand that the visible point is preceded by an invisible point, that the shortest distance between two points is conceived as a straight line before it is ever drawn with pencil and paper...the fountain of all thought has been opened to him...the philosopher can reveal him nothing new, as a geometrician he has discovered the basis of all thought.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Distance, Boys, Two

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• He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.
  [Ger., Aber wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mold, World, Firm

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• He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wish, Energy, May

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• Say what you will of fortitude, but show me the man who can patiently endure the laughter of fools when they have obtained an advantage over him. 'Tis only when their nonsense is without foundation that one can suffer it without complaint.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Laughter, Men, Suffering

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “The Sorrows of Young Werther: Top Classic of German”, p.36, 谷月社

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• A useless life is an early death.
  [Ger., Ein unnutz Leben ist ein fruher Tod.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Useless, Indolence

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• We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Funny, Sarcastic, Teaching

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1982). “Wilhelm Meister's Years of Travel or the Renunciants”, Riverrun Pr

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• He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Being Strong, Inspirational Life, Needs

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• But one must know where one stands, and where the others wish to go.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Advice, Wish, Knows

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• You will find the most pronounced hatred of other nations on the lowest cultural levels. There is, though, a level where the hatred disappears completely and where one so to speak stands above the nations and where one experiences fortune or misfortune of a neighboring country as if they had happened to one's own.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Country, Disappear Completely, Hatred

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• It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Literature, Fool, Merit

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• What is part of you, you cannot get rid of, even if you were to throw it away.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Human Nature, Ifs

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• You are certainly wrong to compare suicide ... with great accomplishments, since it cannot be considered as anything but a weakness. After all, it is easier to die than to endure a harrowing life with fortitude.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Suicide, Accomplishment, Weakness

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• Great passions are incurable diseases.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Passion, Disease, Incurable Disease

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1853). “Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art”, p.113

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• A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Education, Teacher

  "Torquato Tasso". Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Act 1, Scene 2, 1790.

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• If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Missing, Coats, Firsts

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.130, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• How many years you have to keep on doing, until you know what to do and how to do!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Determination, Years, Knows

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