Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 6

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Running, Discovery, 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Don't judge anyone harshly until you yourself have been through his experiences

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Judging, Has Beens

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• The highest cannot be spoken; it can only be acted.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Action, Highest

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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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• I love those who yearn for the impossible.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Philosophy, Life Is Good

  "Faust, Part 2". Book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Act II, "Classical Walpurgis Night", 1832.

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• To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Purpose, Literature

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• To have more, you must first be more.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Military, Firsts

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