Quote collection
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"There is nothing by which men display their character so much as in what they consider ridiculous... Fools and sensible men are equally innocuous. It is in the half fools and the half wise that the great danger lies."
"Man would not be the finest creature in the world if he were not too fine for it."
"Our mistakes and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have accomplished and attained."
"How fair doth Nature Appear again! How bright the sunbeams! How smiles the plain! The flow'rs are bursting From ev'ry bough, And thousand voices Each bush yields now. And joy and gladness Fill ev'ry breast! Oh earth!-oh sunlight! Oh rapture blest! Oh love! oh loved one!"
"It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. But I am sure that figures show us whether it is being ruled well or badly."
"The ground that a good man treads is hallowed."
"With knowledge comes more doubt."
"Ah, how often I've cursed those foolish pages, That showed my youthful sufferings to everyone! If Werther had been my brother, and I'd killed him, His sad ghost could hardly have persecuted me more."
"Rash, inexperienced youth holds itself a chosen instrument, and allows itself unbounded license."
"The rabble also vent their rage in words. [Ger., Es macht das Volk sich auch mit Worten Lust.]"
"Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking. [Ger., Gewohnlich glaubt der Mensch, wenn er nur Worte hort, Es musse sich dabei doch auch was denken.]"
"When toward the Devil's Hose we tread, Woman's a thousand steps behind. [Ger., Denn geht es zu des Bosen Haus Das Weib hat tausend Schritt voraus.]"
"There is but one poetry,--true poetry."
"Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky. [Ger., Es ist dafur gesorgt, dass die Baume nicht in den Himmel wachsen.]"
"What have the Germans gained by their boasted freedom of the press, except the liberty of abusing each other as they like?"
"The passions are like those demons with which Afrasahiab sailed down the Orus. Our only safety consists in keeping them asleep. If they we are lost."
"To blow is not to play on the flute; you must move the fingers. [Ger., Blasen ist nicht floten, ihr musst die Finger bewegen.]"
"Blood is a juice of rarest quality. [Ger., Blut ist ein ganz beondrer Saft.]"
"It is belief in the Bible, the fruits of deep meditation, which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life. I have found capital safely invested and richly productive of interest, although I have sometimes made but a bad use of it."
"Great necessity elevates man, petty necessity casts him down"