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As In Rome There Is, Apart From The Romans, A Population Of Statues, So Apart From This Real World There Is A World Of Illusion, Almost More Potent, In Which Most Men Live.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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As In Rome There

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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As In Rome There Is, Apart From The Romans, A Population Of Statues, So Apart From This Real World There Is A World Of Illusion, Almost More Potent, In Which Most Men Live.

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Experiments Are Mediators Between Nature And Idea.

Let Everyone Sweep In Front Of His Own Door, And The Whole World Will Be Clean.

I Love Those Who Yearn For The Impossible.

Literature Is A Fragment Of A Fragment. Of All That Ever Happened, Or Has Been Said, But A Fraction Has Been Written; And Of This But Little Is Extant.

Take Life Too Seriously, And What Is It Worth? If The Morning Wake Us To No New Joys, If The Evening Bring Us Not The Hopes Of New Pleasures, Is It Worth While To Dress And Undress? Does The Sun Shine On Me Today That I May Reflect On Yesterday? That I May Endeavor To Foresee And Control What Can Neither Be Foreseen Nor Controlled - The Destiny Of Tomorrow?

Napoleon Affords Us An Example Of The Danger Of Elevating One's Self To The Absolute, And Sacrificing Everything To The Carrying Out Of An Idea.

Sacrificing Everything

If I Accept You As You Are, I Will Make You Worse; However, If I Treat You As Though You Are What You Are Capable Of Becoming, I Help You Become That.

In Art, To Express The Infinite One Should Suggest Infinitely More Than Is Expressed.

The Light Is There, And Colors Surround Us. However, If There Were No Light Nor Colors In Our Own Eye, We Wouldn't Perceive Such Things Outside Of Us.

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.

When Nature Begins To Reveal Her Open Secret To A Man, He Feels An Irresistible Longing For Her Worthiest Interpreter, Art.

The Flowers Are Full Of Honey, But Only The Bee Finds Out The Sweetness.

A Plant Is Like A Self-willed Man, Out Of Whom We Can Obtain All Which We Desire, If We Will Only Treat Him His Own Way.

It Is A Great Error To Take Oneself For More Than One Is, Or For Less Than One Is Worth.

Energy Is The Basis Of Everything. Every Jew, No Matter How Insignificant, Is Engaged In Some Decisive And Immediate Pursuit Of A Goal... It Is The Most Perpetual People Of The Earth.

Self-knowledge Comes From Knowing Other Men.

A Word Spoken Is A Terrible Thing When It Suddenly Utters What The Heart Has Long Allowed.

We Lay Aside Letters Never To Read Them Again, And At Last We Destroy Them Out Discretion, And So Disappears The Most Immediate Breath Of Life, Irrecoverably For Ourselves And For Others.

If One Has Not Read The Newspapers For Some Months And Then Reads Them All Together, One Sees, As One Never Saw Before, How Much Time Is Wasted With This Kind Of Literature.

Thought Provoking

Create, Artist, Do Not Talk.

There Is Nothing Worth Thinking But It Has Been Thought Before; We Must Only Try To Think It Again.

There Is Nothing In Which People More Betray Their Character Than In What They Laugh At.

The Soul Is Indestructible And Its Activity Will Continue Through Eternity. It Is Like The Sun, Which, To Our Eyes, Seems To Set At Night; But It Has In Reality Only Gone To Diffuse Its Light Elsewhere.

When Ideas Fail, Words Come In Very Handy.

Happy The Man Who Early Learns The Wide Chasm That Lies Between His Wishes And His Powers.

The Public Wishes Itself To Be Managed Like A Woman; One Must Say Nothing To It Except What It Likes To Hear.

I Am Not Omniscient, But I Know A Lot.

Is Not The Core Of Nature In The Heart Of Man?

The Question "from Where Does The Poet Get It?" Addresses Only The What, Nobody Learns Anything About The How When Asking That Question.

Forget Not That The Man Who Cannot Enjoy His Own Natural Gifts In Silence, And Find His Reward In The Exercise Of Them, Will Generally Find Himself Badly Off.

And I Have Again Observed, My Dear Friend, In This Trifling Affair, That Misunderstandings And Neglect Occasion More Mischief In The World Than Even Malice And Wickedness. At All Events, The Two Latter Are Of Less Frequent Occurrence.

Wherever A Man May Happen To Turn, Whatever A Man May Undertake, He Will Always End Up By Returning To That Path Which Nature Has Marked Out For Him.

The Heights Charm Us, But The Steps Do Not; With The Mountain In Our View We Love To Walk The Plains.

Where Is The Man Who Has The Strength To Be True, And To Show Himself As He Is?

Great Necessity Elevates Man, Petty Necessity Casts Him Down

It Matters Little Whether A Man Be Mathematically Or Philologically Or Artistically Cultivated, So He Be But Cultivated.

The Threshold Is The Place Of Expectation.

With Knowledge Grows Doubt.

Every Offense Is Avenged On Earth.

Age Does Not Make Us Childish, As Some Say; It Finds Us True Children.

Truth Has To Be Repeated Constantly, Because Error Also Is Being Preached All The Time, And Not Just By A Few, But By The Multitude. In The Press And Encyclopaedias, In Schools And Universities, Everywhere Error Holds Sway, Feeling Happy And Comfortable In The Knowledge Of Having Majority On Its Side.

I Consider Him Of No Account Who Esteems Himself Just As The Popular Breath May Chance To Raise Him.

Men Are So Inclined To Content Themselves With What Is Commonest; The Spirit And The Senses So Easily Grow Dead To The Impressions Of The Beautiful And Perfect, That Every One Should Study, By All Methods, To Nourish In His Mind The Faculty Of Feeling These Things. ...for This Reason, One Ought Every Day At Least, To Hear A Little Song, Read A Good Poem, See A Fine Picture, And, If It Were Possible, To Speak A Few Reasonable Words.

If God Had Wanted Me Otherwise, He Would Have Created Me Otherwise.

If Thou Wouldst Hear What Seemly Is And Fit, Inquire Of Noble Woman; They Can Tell, Who In Life's Common Usage Hold Their Place By Graceful Deed And Aptly Chosen Word.

Nothing Should Be Valued Higher Than The Value Of The Day.

It Would Be A Lowly Art That Allowed Itself To Be Understood All At Once.

Painting And Tattooing The Body Is A Return To Animalism.

Science And Art Belong To The Whole World, And Before Them Vanish The Barriers Of Nationality.

It Is Equally A Mistake To Hold One's Self Too High, Or To Rate One's Self Too Cheap.

What One Has Wished For In Youth, In Old Age One Has In Abundance.

The Assault Of Our Enemies Is Not Part Of Our Life; It Is Only Part Of Our Experience; We Throw It Off And Guard Ourselves Against It As Against Frost, Storm, Rain, Hail, Or Any Other Of The External Evils Which May Be Expected To Happen.

A Great Artist... Must Be Shaken By The Naked Truths That Will Not Be Comforted. This Divine Discontent, This Disequilibrium, This State Of Inner Tension Is The Source Of Artistic Energy.

The Greatest Joy Of A Thinking Man Is To Have Searched The Explored And To Quietly Revere The Unexplored.

A Lot Of People Do Not Care About Your Money Until Nearly Penniless. They Also Do So With Time

What Is Not Fully Understood Is Not Possessed.

Love, Whose Power Youth Feels, Is Not Suitable For The Elderly, Just As Little As Anything That Presupposes Productivity. It Is Rare That Productivity Lasts Through The Years.

True Works Of Art Contain Their Own Theory And Give Us The Measurement According To Which We Should Judge Them.

It Is Not Given To Us To Grasp The Truth, Which Is Identical With The Divine, Directly. We Perceive It Only In Reflection, In Example And Symbol, In Singular And Related Appearances. It Meets Us As A Kind Of Life Which Is Incomprehensible To Us, And Yet We Cannot Free Ourselves From The Desire To Comprehend It.

No Wonder We Are All More Or Less Pleased With Mediocrity, Since It Leaves Us At Rest, And Gives The Same Comfortable Feeling As When One Associates With His Equals.

Life Belongs To The Living, And He Who Lives Must Be Prepared For Changes.

Truth Is A Torch But A Tremendous One. That Is Why We Hurry Past It, Shielding Our Eyes, Indeed, In Fear Of Getting Burned.

The Best Genius Is That Which Absorbs And Assimilates Everything Without Doing The Least Violence To Its Fundamental Destiny.

Seldom In The Business And Transactions Of Ordinary Life, Do We Find The Sympathy We Want.

Keep Not Standing Fixed And Rooted. Briskly Venture, Briskly Roam.

If You Wish To Know The Mind Of A Man, Listen To His Words.

One Should Not Search For Anything Behind The Phenomena. They Themselves Are The Message.

I Examine My Own Being, And Find There A World, But A World Rather Of Imagination And Dim Desires, Than Of Distinctness And Living Power. Then Everything Swims Before My Senses, And I Smile And Dream While Pursuing My Way Through The World.

In The End We Retain From Our Studies Only That Which We Practically Apply.

A Person Is Never Happy Till Their Vague Strivings Has Itself Marked Out Its Proper Limitations.

Tomorrow Sees Undone, What Happens Not To-day; Still Forward Press, Nor Never Tire! The Possible, With Steadfast Trust, Resolve Should Be By The Forelock Grasp. Then She Will Ne'er Let Go Her Clasp, And Labors On, Because She Must.

Mastery Is Proven Only In Limitation, And Law Alone Can Give Us Freedom.

The Woman-soul Leadeth Us Upward And On!

Certain Flaws Are Necessary For The Whole. It Would Seem Strange If Old Friends Lacked Certain Quirks.

The Sum Which Two Married People Owe To One Another Defies Calculation. It Is An Infinite Debt, Which Can Only Be Discharged Through All Eternity.

He Is The Happiest Man Who Can See The Connection Between The End And The Beginning Of Life.

If We Are Out Of Synch With Ourselves, Everything Is Out Of Synch For Us.

One Usually Thinks People To Be More Dangerous Than They Are.

Try Novelties For Salesman's Bait, For Novelty Wins Everyone.

All Professional Men Are Handicapped By Not Being Allowed To Ignore Things Which Are Useless.

If You Inquire What People Are Like Here, I Must Answer, "the Same As Everywhere."

Love Is An Ideal Thing, Marriage A Real Thing; A Confusion Of The Real With The Ideal Never Goes Unpunished.

Does Not Man Lack The Force At The Very Point Where He Needs It Most? And When He Soars Upward In Joy, Or Sinks Down In Suffering, Is Not Checked In Both, Is He Not Returned Again To The Dull, Cold Sphere Of Awareness, Just When He Was Longing To Lose Himself In The Fullness Of The Infinite.

The Senses Do Not Deceive Us, But The Judgment Does.

Most Pioneers Are At The Mercy Of Doubt At The Beginning, Whether Of Their Worth, Of Their Theories, Or Of The Whole Enigmatic Field In Which They Labour.

Say What You Will Of Fortitude, But Show Me The Man Who Can Patiently Endure The Laughter Of Fools When They Have Obtained An Advantage Over Him. 'tis Only When Their Nonsense Is Without Foundation That One Can Suffer It Without Complaint.

The Moment One Definitely Commits Oneself, Then Providence Moves Too. Whatever You Think You Can Do, Or Believe You Can Do, Begin It. Action Has Magic, Power And Grace.

Know'st Thou The Land Where The Lemon-trees Bloom, Where The Gold Orange Glows In The Deep Thicket's Gloom, Where A Wind Ever Soft From The Blue Heaven Blows, And The Groves Are Of Laurel And Myrtle And Rose!

The Decline In Literature Indicates A Decline In The Nation. The Two Keep Pace In Their Downward Tendency.

Nothing Can Be Compared To The New Life That The Discovery Of Another Country Provides For A Thoughtful Person. Although I Am Still The Same I Believe To Have Changed To The Bones.

There Is Nothing More Fearful Than Imagination Without Taste. [ger., Es Ist Nichts Furchterlicher Als Einbildungskraft Ohne Geschmack.]

In Praising Or Loving A Child, We Love And Praise Not That Which Is, But That Which We Hope For.

The Phrases That Men Hear Or Repeat Continually, End By Becoming Convictions And Ossify The Organs Of Intelligence.

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.

If The Whole World I Once Could See On Free Soil Stand, With The People Free Then To The Moment Might I Say, Linger Awhile. . .so Fair Thou Art.

Rash, Inexperienced Youth Holds Itself A Chosen Instrument, And Allows Itself Unbounded License.

There Is Nothing New On Earth / For A Person Who Lives Long And Experiences Much. / In My Years Of Youthful Wandering / I Have Seen Crystallized People.

By The Artist's Seizing Any One Object From Nature, That Object No Longer Is Part Of Nature. One Can Go So Far As To Say That Theartist Creates The Object In That Very Moment By Emphasizing Its Significant, Characteristic, And Interesting Aspects Or, Rather, By Adding The Higher Values.

There Is Nothing Outside Of Us That Is Not At The Same Time In Us, And As The External World Has Its Colors The Eye, Too, Has Colors.

He Who Cannot Love Must Learn To Flatter.

One Errs As Long As One Strives.

We Don't Get To Know People When They Come To Us; We Must Go To Them To Find Out What They Are Like.

Great Thoughts And A Pure Heart, That Is What We Should Ask From God.

I Reverence The Individual Who Understands Distinctly What He Wishes; Who Unweariedly Advances, Who Knows The Means Conducive To His Object, And Can Seize And Use Them.

Everything We Do Has A Result. But That Which Is Right And Prudent Does Not Always Lead To Good, Nor The Contrary To What Is Bad.

Fools And Wise Men Are Equally Harmless. It Is The Half-fools And Half-wise That Are Dangerous.

From Inaccessible Mountain Range By Way Of Desert Untrod By Human Foot To The Ends Of The Unknown Seas, The Breath Of The Everlasting Creative Spirit Is Felt, Rejoicing Over Every Speck Of Dust That Hearkens To It And Lives.

Mountain Ranges

If We Take People Only As They Are, Then We Make Them Worse; If We Treat Them As If They Were What They Should Be, Then We Bring Them To Where They Can Be Brought.

Man Is A Simple Being, And However Rich, Varied, And Unfathomable He May Be, The Cycle Of His Situations Is Soon Run Through.

Beauty Is Everywhere A Welcome Guest.

Energy Will Do Anything That Can Be Done In This World.

All Of Us, Just Because We Are Able To Talk, Also Believe We Are Able To Talk About Language.

It Is Better For You To Suffer An Injustice Than For The World To Be Without Law. Therefore, Let Everyone Submit To The Law.

When An Idea Is Wanting, A Word Can Always Be Found To Take Its Place.

Nothing Is Worse Than Active Ignorance.

Life Is Not Anything, But An Opportunity For Something.

If Man Thinks About His Physical Or Moral State He Usually Discovers That He Is Ill.

In Every Artist There Is A Touch Of Audacity Without Which No Talent Is Conceivable.

Beauty Is At Once The Ultimate Principle And The Highest Aim Of Art.

Science Arose From Poetry... When Times Change The Two Can Meet Again On A Higher Level As Friends.

I Will Say With Lorenzo De Medici That Those Who Do Not Hope For Another Life Are Always Dead To This One.

One Needs Only To Get Old To Become Milder; I Don't See Anyone Make A Mistake I Hadn't Also Made.

As For What I Have Done As A Poet, I Take No Pride In Whatever. Excellent Poets Have Lived At The Same Time With Me, Poets More Excellent Lived Before Me, And Others Will Come After Me. But That In My Country I Am The Only Person Who Knows The Truth In The Difficult Science Of Colors-of That, I Say, I Am Not A Little Proud, And Here Have A Consciousness Of Superiority To Many.

People Should Talk Less And Draw More. Personally, I Would Like To Renounce Speech Altogether And, Like Organic Nature, Communicate Everything I Have To Say Visually.

Vanity Is A Desire Of Personal Glory, The Wish To Be Appreciated, Honoured, And Run After, Not Because Of One's Personal Qualities, Merits, And Achievements, But Because Of One's Individual Existence. At Best, Therefore, It Is A Frivolous Beauty Whim It Befits.

Personal Qualities

Boldness Has Power, Magic And Genius In It.

Wouldst Thou Ever Roam Abroad? See, What Is Good Lies By Thy Side. Only Learn To Catch Happiness, For Happiness Is Ever By You.

Mystery Is Truth's Dancing Partner.

The Spectacle Of Nature Is Always New, For She Is Always Renewing The Spectators. Life Is Her Most Exquisite Invention; And Death Is Her Expert Contrivance To Get Plenty Of Life.

You Must Be Either The Servant Or The Master, The Hammer Or The Anvil.

All Beginnings Are Delightful; The Threshold Is The Place To Pause.

I Do Not Now Begin, - I Still Adore Her Whom I Early Cherish'd In My Breast; Then Once Again With Prudence Dispossess'd, And To Whose Heart I'm Driven Back Once More. The Love Of Petrarch, That All-glorious Love, Was Unrequited, And, Alas, Full Sad.

Unrequited Love

The Thinker Makes A Great Mistake When He Asks After Cause And Effect. They Both Together Make Up The Indivisible Phenomenon.

What Makes People Happy Is Activity; Changing Evil Itself Into Good By Power, Working In A God Like Manner.

Aptitudes Are Assumed, They Should Become Accomplishments. That Is The Purpose Of All Education.

Of All Peoples The Greeks Have Dreamt The Dream Of Life Best.

What You Have Inherited From Your Forefathers, It Takes Work To Make It Your Own.

The Effects Of Good Music Are Not Just Because It's New; On The Contrary Music Strikes Us More The More Familiar We Are With It.

If It Is The Greatest Truth That You Seek, The Plants Can Direct You.

To Quit Smoking, You Must First Want To Quit, But Then You Must Also Do The Quitting

I Look Upon All Four Gospels As Thoroughly Genuine, For There Shines Forth From Them The Reflected Splendor Of A Sublimity Proceeding From Jesus Christ.

He Who Has A Task To Perform Must Know How To Take Sides, Or He Is Quite Unworthy Of It.

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.

Great Endowments Often Announce Themselves In Youth In The Form Of Singularity And Awkwardness.

Mathematics Has The Completely False Reputation Of Yielding Infallible Conclusions. Its Infallibility Is Nothing But Identity. Two Times Two Is Not Four, But It Is Just Two Times Two, And That Is What We Call Four For Short. But Four Is Nothing New At All. And Thus It Goes On And On In Its Conclusions, Except That In The Higher Formulas The Identity Fades Out Of Sight.

Take Care Of Your Body With Steadfast Fidelity.

Merely To Breathe Freely Does Not Mean To Live.

Limitation Of Aims Is The Mother Of Wisdom And The Secret Of Achievement.

Two Souls Dwell, Alas! In My Breast.

Nothing Is Good For A Nation But That Which Arises From Its Own Core And Its Own General Wants, Without Apish Imitation Of Another.

With Little Art, Clear Wit And Sense Suggest Their Own Delivery.

That Which Is Eternal In Woman Lifts Us Above.

You Are Certainly Wrong To Compare Suicide ... With Great Accomplishments, Since It Cannot Be Considered As Anything But A Weakness. After All, It Is Easier To Die Than To Endure A Harrowing Life With Fortitude.

You Accuse A Woman Of Wavering Affections, But Don't Blame Her; She Is Just Looking For A Consistent Man.

No One Has Ever Learned Fully To Know Themselves.

I Hate Everything That Merely Instructs Me Without Augmenting Or Directly Invigorating My Activity.

English Plays, Atrocious In Content, Absurd In Form, Objectionable In Action, Execrable Englishtheatre.

Hypotheses Are Lullabies For Teachers To Sing Their Students To Sleep.

Mysteries Are Not Necessarily Miracles.

The Art Of Living Rightly Is Like All Arts; It Must Be Learned And Practiced With Incessant Care.

When I Say To The Moment Flying; 'linger A While -- Thou Art So Fair!' Then Bind Me In Thy Bonds Undying, And My Final Ruin I Will Bear!

Habit Is The Most Imperious Of All Masters.

If You Don't Know Foreign Languages, You Don't Know Anything About Your Own.

Foreign Language

No One Knows What He Is Doing So Long As He Is Acting Rightly; But Of What Is Wrong One Is Always Conscious.

What A Man Does Not Understand, He Does Not Possess.

Great Passions Are Incurable Diseases.

Incurable Disease

What People Call The Spirit Of The Times Is Mostly Their Own Spirit In Which The Times Mirror Themselves.

Destiny Grants Us Our Wishes, But In Its Own Way, In Order To Give Us Something Beyond Our Wishes.

I Was Oppressed With The Sensations I Then Felt; I Sunk Under The Weight Of Them.

No Wise Combatant Underestimates Their Antagonist.

A Person Places Themselves On A Level With The Ones They Praise.

Of The Book Of Books Most Wondrous Is The Tender Book Of Love.

The One Who Acts Is Always Without Conscience; Nobody Has A Conscience But The Contemplative Person.

The Most Fortunate Of Men, Be He A King Or Commoner, Is He Whose Welfare Is Assured In His Own Home.

Our Wishes Are Presentiments Of The Abilities That Lie In Us, Harbingers Of What We Will Be Able To Accomplish.

He Who Serves The Public Is A Poor Animal; He Worries Himself To Death And No One Thanks Him For It.

The Day Is Committed To Error And Floundering; Success And Achievement Are Matters Of Long Range.

Enthusiasm Is Of The Greatest Value, So Long As We Are Not Carried Away By It.

The Church Alone Beyond All Question Has For Ill-gotten Goods The Right Digestion.

With Little Wit And Ease To Suit Them, They Whirl In Narrow Circling Trails, Like Kittens Playing With Their Tails.

There Speaks The Man Of Truly Noble Ways, Who Will Not Listen To The Words Of Praise. In Modesty Averse, And With Deaf Ears, He Acts As Though The Others Were His Peers.

Man Would Not Be The Finest Creature In The World If He Were Not Too Fine For It.

Unlike Grown Ups, Children Have Little Need To Deceive Themselves.

Higher Aims Are In Themselves More Valuable, Even If Unfulfilled, Than Lower Ones Quite Attained.

To Create Something You Must Be Something.

Mental Strength

Plunge Boldly Into The Thick Of Life!

Colors Are The Deeds/ And Sufferings Of Light.

Time Flies, And What Is Past Is Done.

If Everyone Sweeps Before His Own Front Door, Then The Street Is Clean.

Association With Women Is The Basis Of Good Manners.

I Believe In God And In Nature And In The Triumph Of Good Over Evil.

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.

Classicism Is Health, Romanticisim Is Sickness.

A State Of True And Universal Tolerance Is Best Ensured By Leaving Alone The Peculiarities Of Men And Peoples.

Confronted By Outstanding Merit, There Is No Way Of Saving One's Ego Except By Love

Noble Be Man, Helpful And Good! For That Alone Sets Him Apart From Every Other Creature On Earth.

If I Love You, What Business Is It Of Yours?

Funny Relationship

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