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It Is Not Enough To Have Knowledge; One Must Apply It. It Is Not Enough To Have Wishes; One Must Also Accomplish It.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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It Is Not Enough

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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It Is Not Enough To Have Knowledge; One Must Apply It. It Is Not Enough To Have Wishes; One Must Also Accomplish It.

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There Is A Courtesy Of The Heart; It Is Allied To Love. From Its Springs The Purest Courtesy In The Outward Behavior.

Wine Rejoices The Heart Of Man And Joy Is The Mother Of All Virtues.

Association With Women Is The Basis Of Good Manners.

Upon The Creatures We Have Made, We Are, Ourselves, At Last, Dependent.

For The Butterfly, Mating And Propagation Involve The Sacrifice Of Life, For The Human Being, The Sacrifice Of Beauty.

The Credit Of Advancing Science Has Always Been Due To Individuals And Never To The Age.

Experiments Are Mediators Between Nature And Idea.

It Is One Of Heaven's Best Gifts To Hold Such A Dear Creature In One's Arms.

Gray Are All The Theories, But Green Is The Tree Of Life.

On Every Mountain Height Is Rest.

The Man Of Understanding Finds Everything Laughable.

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

The Best Slave Is The One Who Thinks He Is Free.

Each Traveler Should Know What He Has To See, And What Properly Belongs To Him, On A Journey.

Distrust Those In Whom The Desire To Punish Is Strong.

You Shall Abstain, Shall Abstain. That Is The Eternal Song.

Before You Can Do Something, You Must First Be Something.

It Is Easier To Perceive Error Than To Find Truth, For The Former Lies On The Surface And Is Easily Seen, While The Latter Lies In The Depth, Where Few Are Willing To Search For It.

Names Are But Noise And Smoke, Obscuring Heavenly Light.

The Child, Offered The Mother's Breast, Will Not In The Beginning Grab It; But Soon It Clings To It With Zest. And Thus At Wisdom's Copious Breasts You'll Drink Each Day With Greater Zest.

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.

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

The One Who Always Strives, That One Can Be Redeemed.

If You Are To Accomplish All That One Demands Of You, You Must Overestimate Your Own Worth.

The Person Of Analytic Or Critical Intellect Finds Something Ridiculous In Everything. The Person Of Synthetic Or Constructive Intellect, In Almost Nothing.

Every Great Idea Exerts, On First Appearing, A Tyrannical Influence: Hence, The Advantages It Brings Are Turned All Too Soon Into Disadvantages.

If A Good Person Does You Wrong, Act As Though You Had Not Noticed It. If We Practice And Eye For An Eye And A Tooth For A Tooth, Soon The Wholeworld Will Be Blind And Toothless.

Thank God When He Oppresses You, And Again When He Releases You.

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.

Do The Duty Which Lies Nearest To Thee.

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.

I Have Often Reaped What Others Have Sowed. My Work Is The Work Of A Collective Being That Bears The Name Goethe.

How Many Years You Have To Keep On Doing, Until You Know What To Do And How To Do!

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.

Of The Truly Creative No One Is Ever Master; It Must Be Left To Go Its Own Way.

Taste Is Only To Be Educated By Contemplation, Not Of The Tolerably Good But Of The Truly Excellent. I Therefore Show You Only The Best Works; And When You Are Grounded In These, You Will Have A Standard For The Rest, Which You Will Know How To Value, Without Overrating Them.

In Politics People Throw Themselves, As On A Sickbed, From One Side To The Other In The Belief They Will Lie More Comfortably.

There Are Two Things Children Should Get From Their Parents: Roots And Wings.

Assuredly There Is No More Lovely Worship Of God Than That For Which No Image Is Required, But Which Springs Up In Our Breast Spontaneously When Nature Speaks To The Soul, And The Soul Speaks To Nature Face To Face.

All That Is Noble Is In Itself Of A Quiet Nature, And Appears To Sleep Until It Is Aroused And Summoned Forth By Contrast.

The History Of Mankind Is His Character.

Love Does Not Rule; But It Trains, And That Is More.

The Decline Of Literature Indicates The Decline Of A Nation.

There Is No Better Deliverance From The World Than Through Art, And A Man Can Form No Surer Bond With It.

But Who Will Dare To Speak The Truth Out Clear? The Few Who Anything Of Truth Have Learned, And Foolishly Did Not Keep Truth Concealed, Their Thoughts And Visions To The Common Herd Revealed, Since Time Began We've Crucified And Burned

No Prudent Antagonist Thinks Light Of His Adversaries.

When You Lose Interest In Anything, You Also Lose The Memory For It.

Mathematicians Are Like Frenchmen: Whatever You Say To Them They Translate Into Their Own Language And Forthwith It Is Something Entirely Different.

Not All That Is Presented To Us As History Has Really Happened; And What Really Happened Did Not Actually Happen The Way It Is Presented To Us; Moreover, What Really Happened Is Only A Small Part Of All That Happened. Everything In History Remains Uncertain, The Largest Events As Well As The Smallest Occurrence.

Let Us Live, While We Are Alive!

Every Day We Should Hear At Least One Little Song, Read One Good Poem, See One Exquisite Picture, And, If Possible, Speak A Few Sensible Words.

A Man Is Really Alive Only When He Delights In The Good-will Of Others.

Fresh Activity Is The Only Means Of Overcoming Adversity.

All Perishable Is But An Allegory.

The Highest Goal That Man Can Achieve Is Amazement.

The Artist Has A Twofold Relation To Nature; He Is At Once Her Master And Her Slave.

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!

The Theater Has Often Been At Variance With The Pulpit; They Ought Not To Quarrel. How Much Is It To Be Wished That In Both The Celebration Of Nature And Of God Were Intrusted To None But Men Of Noble Minds.

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.

It Is In Vain That A Man Of Sound Mind And Cool Temper Understands The Condition Of Such A Wretched Being... He Can No More Communicate His Own Wisdom To Him Than A Healthy Man Can Instil His Strength Into The Invalid By Whose Bedside He Is Seated.

If You Want Someone To Develop A Specific Trait, Treat Them As Though They Already Had It.

It Is Only Necessary To Grow Old To Become More Charitable And Even Indulgent. I See No Fault Committed By Others That I Have Not Committed Myself.

Truth Must Be Repeated Again And Again, Because Error Is Constantly Being Preached Round About.

Again And Again

If You Want To Get Pleasure Out Of Life, You Must Attach Value To The World.

A Man's Manners Are A Mirror In Which He Shows His Portrait.

The Important Thing Is Not To Know More Than All Men, But To Know More At Each Moment Than Any Particular Man.

Superstition Is The Poetry Of Life.

Children, Like Dogs, Have So Sharp And Fine A Scent That They Detect And Hunt Out Everything--the Bad Before All The Rest. They Also Know Well Enough How This Or That Friend Stands With Their Parents; And As They Practice No Dissimulation Whatever, They Serve As Excellent Barometers By Which To Observe The Degree Of Favor Or Disfavor At Which We Stand With Their Parents.

No Sacred Fane Requires Us To Submit To Insult.

He Who Does Not Know Foreign Languages Does Not Know Anything About His Own.

How Often Do I Lull My Seething Blood To Rest, For You Have Never Seen Anything So Unsteady, So Uncertain, As This Heart.

Our Passions Are The True Phoenixes; When The Old One Is Burnt Out, A New One Rises From Its Ashes.

Normally, People Believe That, If They Hear Just Words, That These Words Must Lead To Some Thought.

Dispel Not, The Happy Delusions Of Children.

He Is A Man Whom It Is Impossible To Please, Because He Is Never Pleased With Himself.

I Have Never Looked At Foreign Countries Or Gone There But With The Purpose Of Getting To Know The General Human Qualities That Are Spread All Over The Earth In Very Different Forms, And Then To Find These Qualities Again In My Own Country And To Recognize And To Further Them.

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

Nature Does Not Suffer Her Veil To Be Taken From Her, And What She Does Not Choose To Reveal To The Spirit, Thou Wilt Not Wrest From Her By Levers And Screws.

When Two People Are Really Happy About One Another One Can Generally Assume They Are Mistaken.

I Think That I Am Better Than The People Who Are Trying To Reform Me.

He Who Wishes To Exert A Useful Influence Must Be Careful To Insult Nothing. Let Him Not Be Troubled By What Seems Absurd, But Concentrate His Energies To The Creation Of What Is Good. He Must Not Demolish, But Build. He Must Raise Temples Where Mankind May Come And Partake Of The Purest Pleasure.

To Make Something You Have To Be Something.

If One Mistreats Citizens Of Foreign Countries, One Infringes Upon One's Duty Toward One's Own Subjects; For Thus One Exposes Themto The Law Of Retribution.

It Is The Nature Of Grace Always To Fill Spaces That Have Been Empty.

It Is A Mistake For A Taciturn, Serious-minded Woman To Marry A Jovial Man, But Not For A Serious-minded Man To Marry A Lighthearted Woman.

It Is Related Of An Englishman That He Hanged Himself To Avoid The Daily Task Of Dressing And Undressing.

Those Who Hope For No Other Life Are Dead Even For This.

The People Who Are Absent Are The Ideal; Those Who Are Present Seem To Be Quite Commonplace.

What You Desire When Young, You Have In Abundance When Old.

Daring Ideas Are Like Chessmen Moved Forward; They May Be Beaten, But They May Start A Winning Game.

Man Can Find No Better Retreat From The World Than Art, And Man Can Find No Stronger Link With The World Than Art.

Character, In Great And Little Things, Means Carrying Through What You Feel Able To Do.

I Am Proud Of My Heart Alone, It Is The Sole Source Of Everything, All Our Strenght, Happiness & Misery. All The Knowledge I Possess Everyone Else Can Acquire, But My Heart Is All My Own

Everything Which Is Properly Business We Must Keep Carefully Separate From Life. Business Requires Earnestness And Method; Life Must Have A Freed Handling.

Men In A State Of Nature, Uncivilized Nations, Children, Have A Great Fondness For Colors In Their Utmost Brightness, And Especially For Yellow-red.

Knowing Is Not Enough; We Must Apply. Willing Is Not Enough; We Must Do.

An Absent Friend Gives Us Friendly Company When We Are Well Assured Of His Happiness.

Prudent And Active Men, Who Know Their Strength And Use It With Limit And Circumspection, Alone Go Far In The Affairs Of The World.

Divide And Rule, A Sound Motto. Unite And Lead, A Better One.

The Words You've Bandied Are Sufficient; 'tis Deeds That I Prefer To See. [ger., Der Worte Sind Genug Gewechselt, Lasst Mich Auch Endlich Thaten Sehn.]

Everything Factual Is, In A Sense, Theory. The Blue Of The Sky Exhibits The Basic Laws Of Chromatics. There Is No Sense In Looking For Something Behind Phenomena: They Are Theory.

There Is Nothing Worse Than Aggressive Stupidity.

All Things Are Only Transitory.

We Must Not Take The Faults Of Our Youth With Us Into Old Age, For Age Brings Along Its Own Defects.

The World Is For Thousands A Freak Show; The Images Flicker Past And Vanish; The Impressions Remain Flat And Unconnected In The Soul. Thus They Are Easily Led By The Opinions Of Others, Are Content To Let Their Impressions Be Shuffled And Rearranged And Evaluated Differently.

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.

Care Is Taken That Trees Do Not Grow Into The Sky.

Life Teaches Us To Be Less Harsh With Ourselves And With Others.

It Is Better To Be Deceived By One's Friends Than To Deceive Them.

What Makes Poetry? A Full Heart, Brimful Of One Noble Passion.

At The End Of Life Thoughts Hitherto Impossible Come To The Collected Mind, Like Good Spirits Which Let Themselves Down From The Shining Heights Of The Past.

Merely To Breathe Freely Does Not Mean To Live.

Those Who Know Nothing Of Foreign Languages Know Nothing Of Their Own.

Say What We May Of The Inadequacy Of Translation, Yet The Work Is And Will Always Be One Of The Weightiest And Worthiest Undertakings In The General Concerns Of The World.

The Miller Imagines That The Corn Grows Only To Make His Mill Turn.

Hatred Is Partial, But Love Is Still More So.

If A Man Writes A Book, Let Him Set Down Only What He Knows. I Have Guesses Enough Of My Own.

I Have So Much In Me, And The Feeling For Her Absorbs It All; I Have So Much, And Without Her It All Comes To Nothing.

Unrequited Love

Woe To Falsehood! It Affords No Relief To The Breast, Like Truth; It Gives Us No Comfort, Pains Him Who Forges It, And Like An Arrow Directed By A God Flies Back And Wounds The Archer.

The Primal Plant Is Going Be The Strangest Creature In The World, Which Nature Herself Must Envy Me. With This Model And The Key To It, It Will Be Possible To Go On For Ever Inventing Plants And Know That Their Existence Is Logical; That Is To Say, If They Do Not Actually Exist, They Could, For They Are Not The Shadowy Phantoms Of A Vain Imagination, But Possess An Inner Necessity And Truth. The Same Law Will Be Applicable To All Other Living Organisms.

What Is Fruitful Alone Is True.

The Ideal Of Beauty Is Simplicity And Tranquility.

The Artist Who Is Not Also A Craftsman Is No Good; But, Alas, Most Of Our Artists Are Nothing Else.

The Nude Is The Perfect Expression Of Freedom. Freedom To Be.

To Make An Epoch In The World, Two Conditions Are Manifestly Essential-a Good Head And A Great Inheritance.

Everything Great And Intelligent Is In The Minority

He Who Only Tastes His Error Will Long Dwell With It, Will Take Delight In It As In A Singular Felicity; While He Who Drains It To The Dregs Will, If He Be Not Crazy, Find It To Be What It Is.

The Eternal Female Draws Us Onward.

It's True That Nothing In This World Makes Us So Necessary To Others As The Affection We Have For Them.

If You Want A Wise Answer, Ask A Reasonable Question.

Questions And Answers

Our Passions Are True Phoenixes; As The Old Burn Out The New Straight Rise Up From The Ashes.

How To Please The Public - That's The Test, But Nowadays I Find I'm In A Fix; I Know They're Not Accustomed To The Best, But They've All Read So Much They Know The Tricks. How Can We Give Then Something Fresh And New That's Serious, But Entertaining Too?

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.

The Person Born With A Talent They Are Meant To Use Will Find Their Greatest Happiness In Using It.

God Help Us -- For Art Is Long, And Life So Short.

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

Thinking Is Easy, Acting Is Difficult, And To Put One's Thoughts Into Action Is The Most Difficult Thing In The World.

Whatever We Think Out, Whatever We Take In Hand To Do, Should Be Perfectly And Finally Finished, That The World, If It Must Alter, Will Only Have To Spoil It; We Have Then Nothing To Do But Unite The Severed, To Recollect And Restore The Dismembered.

Difficulties Increase The Nearer We Get To The Goal.

We Must Always Change, Renew, Rejuvenate Ourselves; Otherwise, We Harden.

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

[w]hat Counts Is That One Perceives Excellence And Dares To Give It Expression, Which Sounds Little But Is In Fact A Great Deal.

Courage Is The Commitment To Begin Without Any Guarantee Of Success.

One Should Not Wish Anyone Disagreeable Conditions Of Life; But For Him Who Is Involved In Them By Chance, They Are Touchstones Of Characters And Of The Most Decisive Value To Man.

The Wealth That Cannot Be Administered Is A Burden.

All Intelligent Thoughts Have Already Been Thought; What Is Necessary Is Only To Try To Think Them Again.

To Appear At Church Every Sunday; To Look Down Upon, And Let Himself Be Looked At For An Hour By The Congregation, Is The Best Means Of Becoming Popular Which Can Be Recommended To A Young Sovereign.

Superstition Is The Poesy Of Practical Life; Hence, A Poet Is None The Worse For Being Superstitious.

What By A Straight Path Cannot Be Reached By Crooked Ways Is Never Won.

Nine Requisites For Contented Living: Health Enough To Make Work A Pleasure. Wealth Enough To Support Your Needs. Strength To Battle With Difficulties And Overcome Them. Grace Enough To Confess Your Sins And Forsake Them. Patience Enough To Toil Until Some Good Is Accomplished. Charity Enough To See Some Good In Your Neighbor. Love Enough To Move You To Be Useful And Helpful To Others. Faith Enough To Make Real The Things Of God. Hope Enough To Remove All Anxious Fears Concerning The Future.

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

I Am Part Of The Part That Once Was Everything, Part Of The Darkness Which Gave Birth To Light… Mephistopheles, From Faust.

Girls We Love For What They Are; Young Men For What They Promise To Be.

Man Errs, Till He Has Ceased To Strive.

A School Of Art Or Of Anything Else Is To Be Looked On As A Single Individual, Who Keeps Talking To Himself For A Hundred Years, And Feels An Extreme Satisfaction With His Own Circle Of Favorite Ideas, Be They Ever So Silly.

There Is No Surer Method Of Evading The World Than By Following Art, And No Surer Method Of Linking Oneself To It Than By Art.

The Best Benefit We Derive From History Is The Enthusiasm It Excites.

Men Show Their Character In Nothing More Clearly Than What They Think Laughable.

Plunge Boldly Into The Thick Of Life, And Seize It Where You Will, It Is Always Interesting.

Personality Is Everything In Art And Poetry.

The Misfortune In The State Is, That Nobody Can Enjoy Life In Peace, But That Everybody Must Govern; And In Art, That Nobody Will Enjoy What Has Been Produced, But That Every One Wants To Reproduce On His Own Account.

Win For Yourself That Which Your Fathers Have Won.

The Artist May Be Well Advised To Keep His Work To Himself Till It Is Completed, Because No One Can Readily Help Him Or Advise Him With It... But The Scientist Is Wiser Not To Withhold A Single Finding Or A Single Conjecture From Publicity.

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

If There Is Confusion In Your Head And In Your Heart, What More Do You Want! A Man Who No Longer Loves And No Longer Errs Should Have Himself Buried Straight Away.

God Made Man Simple, But How He Changed And Got Complicated Is Hard To Say.

Nothing Is More Fearful Than Imagination Without Taste.

The Dangers Of Life Are Infinite, And Among Them Is Safety.

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.

If Your Treat An Individual... As If He Were What He Ought To Be And Could Be, He Will Become What He Ought To Be And Could Be.

Talent Is Nurtured In Solitude; Character Is Formed In The Stormy Billows Of The World. [ger., Es Bildet Ein Talent Sich In Der Stille, Sich Ein Charakter In Dem Strom Der Welt.]

He Who Is Plenteously Provided For From Within Needs But Little From Without.

Inspirational Life

Doubt Can Only Be Removed By Action.

It Is Impossible That Beauty Should Ever Distinctly Appreciate Itself.

Who Can Think Wise Or Stupid Things At All That Were Not Thought Already In The Past.

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

At All Times It Has Not Been The Age, But Individuals Alone, Who Have Worked For Knowledge. It Was The Age Which Put Socrates To Death By Poison, The Age Which Burnt Huss. The Ages Have Always Remained Alike.

I Respect The Man Who Knows Distinctly What He Wants.

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

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

Every Reader, If He Has A Strong Mind, Reads Himself Into The Book, And Amalgamates His Thoughts With Those Of The Author.

What Is The Destiny Of Man, But To Fill Up The Measure Of His Sufferings, And To Drink His Allotted Cup Of Bitterness?

Lose The Day Loitering, 'twill Be The Same Story To-morrow, And The Next More Dilatory, For Indecision Brings Its Own Delays, And Days Are Lost Lamenting O'er Lost Days. Are You In Earnest? Seize This Very Minute! What You Can Do, Or Think You Can, Begin It! Only Engage, And Then The Mind Grows Heated; Begin It, And The Work Will Be Completed.

Our Hands We Open Of Our Own Free Will, And The Good Flies, Which We Can Never Recall.

Whatever Liberates Our Spirit, Without Also Giving Us Mastery Over Ourselves, Is Destructive.

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.

Be Always Resolute With The Present Hour. Every Moment Is Of Infinite Value.

Shakespeare Is Dangerous To Young Poets; They Cannot But Reproduce Him, While They Fancy That They Produce Themselves.

For Just When Ideas Fail, A Word Comes In To Save The Situation.

Wild Dreams Torment Me As I Lie. And Though A God Lives In My Heart, Though All My Power Waken At His Word, Though He Can Move My Every Inmost Part - Yet Nothing In The Outer World Is Stirred. Thus By Existence Tortured And Oppressed I Crave For Death, I Long For Rest.

I Make Presents To The Mother But Think Of The Daughter.

Whoever Would Do Good In The World, Ought Not To Deal In Censure. We Ought Not To Destroy, But Rather Construct.

I Never Believed In Trying To Do Anything. Whatever I Set Out To Do I Found I Had Already Accomplished.

To Make Converts Is The Natural Ambition Of Everyone.

To Know Someone Here Or There With Whom You Can Feel There Is Understanding In Spite Of Distances Or Thoughts Expressed That Can Make Life A Garden.

It Is Ever True That He Who Does Nothing For Others, Does Nothing For Himself." ~ Goethe

What Chance Gathers, She Easily Scatters. A Great Person Attracts Great People And Knows How To Hold Them Together.

Piety Is Not A Goal But A Means To Attain Through The Purest Peace Of Mind The Highest Culture.

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

And Future Deeds Crowded Round Us As The Countless Stars In The Night. [ger., Und Kunftige Thaten Drangen Wie Die Sterne Rings Um Uns Her Unzahlig Aus Der Nacht.]

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