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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes - Page 67

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[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.

[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Expression, Giving, Excellence

Waste not a day in vain digression; with resolute, courageous trust seek every possible impression and make it firmly your posession you'll then work on because you must.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Waste, Courageous, Vain

In the colored reflection we have Life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Inspirational, Reflection, What Is Life
"Faust".

Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Devil, Faust, Caught
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1984). “Faust”

Every offense is avenged on earth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Justice, Earth, Offense

One never learns to understand truly anything but what one loves.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Educational, One Love

Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Educational, Philosophy, Believe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1976). “Faust: a tragedy : backgrounds and sources, the author on the drama, contemporary reactions, modern criticism”, W. W. Norton & Company

The man of understanding finds everything laughable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Men, Understanding, He Man

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Men, Desire, Aspiration
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1872). “Faust: A Tragedy”, p.203

One lives but once in the world.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Life, Philosophy, World
"Clavigo". Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Act 1, Scene 1, 1774.

Time is a strange thing. It is a whimsical tyrant, which in every century has a different face for all that one says and does.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Time, Tyrants, Different Faces
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.80, Ravenio Books

Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Running, Simple, Men
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.158, Ravenio Books

Profoundness, genius, spontaneity, merit, nobility, ingenuity, voice propriety, feeling, discernment, sensibility, good taste, great tone, rightness, courtliness, vivacity, boldness, style, freshness, harmony, perfection, imagination, purity, correctness. The greatest writer of all times. God's most astonishing creation.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Religious, Voice, Imagination

Don't say that you want to give, but go ahead and give! You'll never catch up with a mere hope.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Generosity, Giving, Want

Where a man has a passion for meditating without the capacity of thinking, a particular idea fixes itself fast, and soon creates a mental disease.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Passion, Men, Thinking

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.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Reflection, Action, Duty

Whether one show one's self a man of genius in science or compose a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, the deed, is living and can live on.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Song, Science, Men

Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Party, Prejudice, Null
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Stuart Blackie (1883). “The Wisdom of Goethe”, Edinburgh, W. Blackwood

If the mass of people hesitate to act, strike with swiftly and with boldness, the brave heart that understands and seizes opportunity can everything.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Inspirational, Heart, Procrastination

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Success, Men, Envy
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1850). “Truth and Poetry: from My Own Life; Or, The Autobiography of Goethe”, p.92

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Taste, Excellent, Contemplation
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann, Frédéric Jacob Soret (1850). “Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret”, p.137

I know nothing more mocking than a devil that despairs.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Devil, Despair, Knows

Nature reacts not only to physical disease, but also to moral weakness; when the danger increases; she gives us greater courage

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nature, Giving, Weakness

I have found a paper of mine among some others in which I call architecture 'petrified music.' Really there is something in this; the tone of mind produced by architecture approaches the effect of music.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Mind, Paper, Tone
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.356, Ravenio Books

Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie alles in ihre eigene Sprache, und so wird es alsobald etwas ganz anderes. Mathematicians are a kind of Frenchmen. Whenever you say anything or talk to them, they translate it into their own language, and right away it is something completely different.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Art, Men, Say Anything

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