Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 6

• The soul is indestructible and its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Eye, Night, Reality

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• The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wish, Hearing, Likes

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• Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Spring, Winter, Thinking

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.980, Delphi Classics

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• Doubt grows with knowledge.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  War, Doubt, Grows

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

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• Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Running, Discovery, Self

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• There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Pay, Weakness

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• The coward only threatens when he is safe.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Coward, Literature, Safe

  "Torquato Tasso". II. 3. 207, 1790.

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• If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Heart, Winning, Self

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• Mankind? That is an abstraction. There have always been and always will be only individuals.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Individual, Mankind, Abstraction

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• Very few people love others for what they are; rather, they love what they lend them, their own selves, their own idea of them.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Self, Ideas, People

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• He is the happiest man who can see the connection between the end and the beginning of life.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Death, Men, Connections

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• The flowers are full of honey, but only the bee finds out the sweetness.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Flower, Honey, Bees

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• A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Marriage, Loss, Men

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• A great artist... must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Artist, Suffering, Energy

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1949). “Truth and Fantasy from My Life”

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• Opponents fancy they refute us when they repeat their own opinion and pay no attention to ours.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Attention, Opponents, Pay

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.135, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• Money lost, something lost. Honor lost, much lost. Courage lost, everything lost-better you were never born

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Courage, Honor, Lost Everything

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• Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Motivational, Mind, Tasks

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• No doubt you are right... there would be far less suffering amongst mankind if men... did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Memories, Past, Men

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2006). “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, p.1, Mondial

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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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• Willing is not enough, we must do.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Wisdom, Enough

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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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• How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Trying, Know Yourself

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• Tolerance should really be only a temporary attitude; it must lead to recognition. To tolerate means to offend.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Attitude, Mean, Tolerance

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• In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Education, Science, Medicine

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• To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Funny Inspirational, Integrity, Inspirational Life

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