"Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius."
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes (page 13 of 88)
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"Create, artist, do not talk."
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"Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre."
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"All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again."
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"I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it."
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"We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives."
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"Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing and of what is not knowable."
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"Everything perfect in its kind has to transcend its own kind, it must become something different and incomparable. In some notes the nightingale is still a bird; then it rises above its class and seems to suggest to every winged creature what singing is truly like."
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"If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question."
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"Only law can give us freedom."
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"And what does really matter? That is easy: thinking and doing, doing and thinking--and these are the sum of all wisdom. . . . Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out."
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"The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive."
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"To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being."
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"It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united."
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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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"He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without."
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"He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm."
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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 our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens."
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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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