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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes about Past

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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

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

Fret not over the irretrievable, but ever act as if thy life were just begun.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, Ifs

Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.

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

The new vulcanism is really a daring attempt to connect the present, incomprehensible world to a past, unknown one.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, World, Daring

It is a great pleasure to transport one's-self into the spirit of the times; to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Inspirational, Wise, Past
"Faust: A Dramatic Poem".

Time flies, and what is past is done.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, Time Flies, Done

There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, Longing, Something New

Truth is a torch, but a huge one, and so it is only with blinking eyes what we all of us try to get past it, in actual terror of being burnt.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Truth, Eye, Past
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3526, Delphi Classics

The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, Media, Soul
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Gage (1980). “Goethe on Art”, p.114, Univ of California Press

Over the trackless past, somewhere, Lie the lost days of our tropic youth, Only regained by faith and prayer, Only recalled by prayer and plaint, Each lost day has its patron saint!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Prayer, Lying, Past

We all of us live upon the past, and through the past we are destroyed.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, History, Destroyed
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, W. B. Rönnfeldt (1898*). “Goethe's Criticisms, Reflections, and Maxims”

At the end of life thoughts hitherto impossible come to the collected mind, like good spirits which let themselves down from the shining heights of the past.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Past, Shining, Mind

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