"One says a lot in vain, refusing; The other mainly hears the "No.""
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes (page 73 of 88)
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"He is a man whom it is impossible to please, because he is never pleased with himself."
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"Who strives always to the utmost, him can we save."
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"As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone."
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"A man would create another man if one did not already exist, but a woman might live an eternity without even thinking of reproducing her own sex."
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"What is the freedom of the most free? To do what is right!"
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"On all the peaks lies peace."
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"Poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere, and at all times, in hundreds and hundreds of men."
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"If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party; and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet."
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"At bottom, no real object is unpoetical, if the poet knows how to use it properly."
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"Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another."
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"The spirit from which we act is the principal matter."
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"The few of understanding, vision rare, Who veiled not from the herd their hearts, but tried, Poor generous fools, to lay their feelings bare, Them have men always burnt and crucified."
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"As a man is, so is his God; therefore God was so often an object of mockery. [Ger., Wie einer ist, so ist sein Gott, Darum ward Gott so oft zu Spott.]"
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"Whoever would understand the poet Must go into the poet's country. [Ger., Wer den Dichter will verstehen Muss in Dichters Lande gehen.]"
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"I have observed that as long as one lives and bestirs himself, he can always find food and raiment, though it may not be of the choicest description."
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"To a valet no man is a hero. [Ger., Es gibt fur den Kammerdiener keiner Helden.]"
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"Wood burns because it has the proper stuff for that purpose in it; and a man becomes renowned because he has the necessary stuff in him. Renown is not to be sought, and all pursuit of it is vain. A person may, indeed, by skillful conduct and various artificial means, make a sort of name for himself; but if the inner jewel is wanting, all is vanity, and will not last a day."
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"What sort of faults may we retain, nay, even cherish in ourselves? Those faults which are rather pleasant than offensive to others."
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"How happy he who can still hope to lift himself from this sea of error! What we know not, that we are anxious to possess, and cannot use what we know."
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