Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 24

• To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions, means ruiningtheir craft.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Mean, Crafts

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• We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection--which we have ourselves created.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Perfection, Contentment, Quality

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• Experiments are mediators between nature and idea.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Science, Technology, Ideas

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• What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Father, Inheritance

  "Faust". Act I, scene i, 1808.

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• Gifts come from above in their own peculiar forms.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Peculiar, Form

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 311-13, Hermann und Dorothea, Canto V, line 69, 1922.

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• Energy will do anything that can be done in this world.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Energy, Done

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• The errors of the observer come from the qualities of the human mind.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Errors, Mind, Quality

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• Wild dreams torment me as I lie. And though a god lives in my heart, though all my power waken at his word, though he can move my every inmost part - yet nothing in the outer world is stirred. thus by existence tortured and oppressed I crave for death, I long for rest.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Dream, Lying, Moving

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, David Luke (1998). “Faust”, p.48, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. - Without haste, but without rest.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Haste

  Motto

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• The world remains ever the same.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Literature, World, Remains

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.117, Ravenio Books

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• If you want to get pleasure out of life, you must attach value to the world.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  World, Want, Pleasure

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• Sin writes histories, goodness is silent.
  [Ger., Das Uebel macht eine Geschichte und das Gute keine.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, History, Sin

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• Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it is securely founded; that it be successfully executed.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Success, Three Things, Execution

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1873). “Novels and Tales”, p.57

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• What people call the spirit of the times is mostly their own spirit in which the times mirror themselves.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Integrity, Mirrors, Hypocrisy

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• No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to brag about priority; for it's simply unconscious conceit, not to admit frankly that one is a plagiarist.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mean, Science, Discovery

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• A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Justice, Judging, Criminals

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• Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an elect few.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Dream, Passion, May

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1839). “Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of His Life”, p.276

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• Theories are usually the over-hasty efforts of an impatient understanding that would gladly be rid of phenomena, and so puts in their place pictures, notions, nay, often mere words.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Effort, Understanding, Impatient

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.174, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Long, Understanding, Misunderstood

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• The style of writing required in the great world is distinguished by a free and daring grace, a careless security, a fine and sharp polish, a delicate and perfect taste; while that fitted for the people is characterized by a vigorous natural fulness, a profound depth of feeling, and an engaging naivete.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Writing, Profound, Perfect

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• This being busied with thoughts of immortality is for the noble classes and especially for women with nothing to do. A solid person, though, someone who already intends to be something worthy here, and who therefore has to strive daily, has to struggle and work, gives the world to come a rest.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Struggle, Class, Giving

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• To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed That can make life a garden.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Friendship, Marriage

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• It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Aspect, Trifles, Concern

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• To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Ambition, Natural

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• Chess is the touchstone of intellect.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Chess, Intellect, Touchstones

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