Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

German poet, novelist and dramatist

Nationality: German

Type: Poet

Page: 1

People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

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The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

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Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

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The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief.

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The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

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For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

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Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.

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Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.

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Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.

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It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.

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The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.

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We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects.

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All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

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Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.

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Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.

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Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.

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We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.

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If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

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He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

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Oh how sweet it is to hear one's own convictions from another's lips.

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What I possess I would gladly retain. Change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits.

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Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

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Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

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Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.

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Character develops itself in the stream of life.

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Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

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Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

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Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

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Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

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

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We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.

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If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

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Common sense is the genius of humanity.

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Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.

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No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

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No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.

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I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.

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Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.

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Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.

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Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.

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Wealth lost is something lost, honor lost is something lost: Courage lost all is lost.

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There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

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The coward threatens when he is safe.

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A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.

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To create something you must be something.

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There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.

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The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing.

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Strike the dog dead, it's but a critic!

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One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

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A useless life is an early death.

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Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

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Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.

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We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

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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.

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Ambition and love are the wings to great deeds.

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While man's desires and aspirations stir he cannot choose but err.

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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.

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Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

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Doubt can only be removed by action.

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I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.

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We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

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Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

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Love can do much, but duty more.

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How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.

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I've studied now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine - and even, alas! Theology - from end to end with labor keen; and here, poor fool with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before.

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In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.

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No one as ever completed their apprenticeship.

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Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.

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They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.

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He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

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Mastery passes often for egotism.

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All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

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No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.

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Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

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He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.

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Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.

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Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

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Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

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What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

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If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.

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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.

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Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.

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

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If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. They will make note of this and not remain in your debt long.

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Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are wo

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Yes! To this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew.

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Only law can give us freedom.

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In comradeship is danger countered best.

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Giving is the business of the rich.

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The first and last thing required of genius is, love of the truth.

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The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.

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The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

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Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.

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The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.

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A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.

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The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

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The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.

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Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

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What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.

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The highest happiness of man is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.

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Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.

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Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

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Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.

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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.

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The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.

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The history of mankind is his character.

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He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.

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Be he a king or a peasant, he is happiest who finds peace at home.

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Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

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Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

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In all things it is better to hope than to despair.

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The deed is everything, the glory is naught.