Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 11

• Each one of us must carry within the proof of immortality, it cannot be given from outside of us. To be sure, everything in natureis change but behind the change there is something eternal.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Change, Immortality, Proof

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• Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Birthday, Errors, Long

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• What then is your duty? What the day demands.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Demand, Duty, Obligation

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• To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Capacity, Overestimate

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• We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an atmosphere about which we still know nothing at all.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Atmosphere, Mystery, Walks

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• Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Mean, Adversity

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• Investigate what is, and not what pleases.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Please

  "'Der Versuch als Vermittler von Objekt und Subjekt' ('The Attempt as Mediator of Object and Subject')". Essay by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1792.

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• With the growth of knowledge our ideas must from time to time be organized afresh. The change takes place usually in accordance with new maxims as they arise, but it always remains provisional.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Knowledge, Ideas, Growth

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1906). “The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe”

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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.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Strength, Grief, Unhappy Person

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• Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Truth, Men, Shows

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3515, Delphi Classics

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• The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Experience, Practicals

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

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• People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Life, Fall, People

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• Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Littles, Merit

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1924). “Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels”, p.428, Library of Alexandria

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• A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  People, Noble, Nobility

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

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• In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Leadership, Perseverance, Business

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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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• Once I blazed across the sky, Leaving trails of flame; I fell to earth, and here I lie - Who'll help me up again? -A Shooting Star

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Stars, Lying, Flames

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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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• Stupidity is without anxiety.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Stupidity, Anxiety

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann, Frédéric Jacob Soret (1850). “Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret”, p.177

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• It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Government, People

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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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• We're only really thinking when we can't think out fully what we are really thinking about!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking

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• Our passions are true phoenixes; as the old burn out the new straight rise up from the ashes.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Passion, Phoenix, Ashes

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.761, Delphi Classics

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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 worthy to be on a level with it.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Freedom, Levels, Bears

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1935). “Conversations with Goethe”

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• So, lively brisk old fellow, don't let age get you down. White hairs or not, you can still be a lover.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Friendship, Hair, White

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