"Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong."
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes (page 58 of 88)
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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."
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"The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect."
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"If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat."
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"No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth."
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"One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man."
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"Continue to make the demands of the day your immediate concern, and take occasion to test the purity of your hearts and the steadfastness of your spirits. When you then take a deep breath and rise above the cares of this world and in an hour of leisure, you will surely win the proper frame of mind to face devoutly what is above us, with reverence, seeing in all events the manifestation of a higher guidance."
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"Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man."
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"Animals, we have been told, are taught by their organs. Yes, I would add, and so are men, but men have this further advantage that they can also teach their organs in return."
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"God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say."
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"Children can scarcely be fashioned to meet with our likes and our purpose. Just as God did us give them, so must we hold them and love them, nurture and teach them to fullness and leave them to be what they are."
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"Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving."
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"All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticeable manner; it is supposed to make us aware of what it would be valuable to instruct ourselves in; we must deduce the lesson on our own, just as with life."
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"It is equally a mistake to hold one's self too high, or to rate one's self too cheap."
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"There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries."
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"One must be something to be able to do something."
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"The one who always strives, That one can be redeemed."
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"A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up."
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"Hypotheses are lullabies for teachers to sing their students to sleep."
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"Error is to truth as sleep is to waking. I have observed that one turns, as if refreshed, from error back to truth."
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