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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.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Let's Plunge Ourselves Into

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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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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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One Alone Does Not Help, But Rather He Who Unites With Many At The Right Moment.

Habit Is The Most Imperious Of All Masters.

Mannerism Is Always Longing To Have Done, And Has No True Enjoyment In Work. A Genuine, Really Great Talent, On The Other Hand, Has Its Greatest Happiness In Execution.

I Hold To Faith In The Divine Love - Which, So Many Years Ago For A Brief Moment In A Little Corner Of The Earth, Walked About As A Man Bearing The Name Of Jesus Christ - As The Foundation On Which Alone My Happiness Rests.

The History Of Mankind Is His Character.

People Of Uncommon Abilities Generally Fall Into Eccentricities When Their Sphere Of Life Is Not Adequate To Their Abilities.

To Appreciate The Noble Is A Gain Which Can Never Be Torn From Us.

Truth Is A Torch, But A Terrific One; Therefore We All Try To Reach It With Closed Eyes, Lest We Should Be Scorched.

The Day Of Fortune Is Like A Harvest Day, We Must Be Busy When The Corn Is Ripe. [ger., Ein Tag Der Gunst Ist Wie Ein Tag Der Ernte, Man Muss Geschaftig Sein Sobald Sie Reift.]

The Evil One Has Left, The Evil Ones Remain.

Only The Heart Without A Stain Knows Perfect Ease. [ger., Ganz Unbefleckt Geniesst Sich Nur Das Herz.]

A Rainbow Which Lasts For A Quarter Of An Hour Is Looked At No Longer.

In All Times It Is Only Individuals That Have Advanced Science, Not The Age.

My Poor Head Is In Such A Whirl, My Mind Is All In Bits.

What You Can Do, Or Think You Can, Begin It.

Decision Making

The World Is So Full Of Simpletons And Madmen, That One Need Not Seek Them In A Madhouse.

The Realization Of The Self Is Only Possible If One Is Productive, If One Can Give Birth To One's Own Potentialities.

I Know Nothing More Mocking Than A Devil That Despairs.

Nature Is Beneficent. I Praise Her And All Her Works. She Is Silent And Wise. She Is Cunning, But For Good Ends. She Has Brought Me Here And Will Also Lead Me Away. She May Scold Me, But She Will Not Hate Her Work. I Trust Her.

The Whole History Of The Christian Church Is A Mixture Of Errors And Violence.

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.

Character Is Constructed Amidst The Tempests Of The World

The Human Mind Will Not Be Confined To Any Limits.

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

I Am Certain That I Have Been Here As I Am Now A Thousand Times Before, And I Hope To Return A Thousand Times.

We Know Accurately Only When We Know Little, With Knowledge Doubt Increases.

Faith Is A Homely, Private Capital; As There Are Public Savings-banks And Poor Funds, Out Of Which In Times Of Want We Can Relieve The Necessities Of Individuals, So Here The Faithful Take Their Coin In Peace.

Without Haste! Without Rest! Bind The Motto To Thy Breast! Bear It With Thee As A Spell; Storm Or Sunshine , Guard It Well.

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.

Men Are So Constituted That Every One Undertakes What He Sees Another Successful In, Whether He Has Aptitude For It Or Not.

What A Mighty Spirit In A Narrow Bosom. [ger., Welch' Hoher Geist In Einer Engen Brust.]

There Is Nothing In The World More Pitiable Than An Irresolute Man, Oscillating Between Two Feelings, Who Would Willingly Unite The Two And Who Does Not Perceive That Nothing Can Unite Them

A Man Must Cling To The Belief That The Incomprehensible Is Comprehensible; Otherwise He Would Not Try To Fathom It.

It Doesn't Behoove Elderly Persons To Follow Fashion In Their Thinking Nor In The Way They Dress.

When You Praise Someone You Call Yourself His Equal.

Reason Looks At Necessity As The Basis Of The World; Reason Is Able To Turn Chance In Your Favor And Use It. Only By Having Reasonremain Strong And Unshakable Can We Be Called A God Of The Earth.

Whoso Shrinks From Ideas Ends By Having Nothing But Sensations.

To Have Seen Italy Without Having Seen Sicily Is To Not Have Seen Italy At All, For Sicily Is The Clue To Everything.

Behavior Is The Mirror In Which Everyone Shows Their Image.

Talent Develops In Quiet, Alone; Character Is Sharpened In The Torrent Of The World.

We Are Shaped And Fashioned By What We Love.- Henry Ward Beecher - I Never Knew How To Worship Until I Knew How To Love.

Even Though The World As A Whole Progresses, Youth Must Always Start Again From The Beginning, And As Individuals Go Through The Epochs Of The World's Culture.

Mysteries Are Not Necessarily Miracles.

At Bottom, No Real Object Is Unpoetical, If The Poet Knows How To Use It Properly.

A Man Should Hear A Little Music, Read A Little Poetry, And See A Fine Picture Every Day Of His Life, In Order That Worldly Cares May Not Obliterate The Sense Of The Beautiful Which God Has Implanted In The Human Soul.

We Should Treat Children As God Does Us, Who Makes Us Happiest When He Leaves Us Under The Influence Of Innocent Delusions.

Love Grants In A Moment What Toil Can Hardly Achieve In An Age. [ger., In Einem Augenblick Gewahrt Die Liebe Was Muhe Kaum In Langer Zeit Erreicht.]

Gray Is The Color Of All Theory

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.

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

What We Don't Understand We Don't Possess.

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.

Every Step Of Life Shows Much Caution Is Required.

The Day Is For Mistake And Error, Sequence Of Time For Success And Carrying Out. The One Who Anticipates Is Master Of The Day.

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

A Man Who Is Ignorant Of Foreign Languages Is Also Ignorant Of His Own Language.

As Soon As You Trust Yourself, You Will Know How To Live.

It Is Bad Governments, Not Bad People, Who Cause Revolutions.

What Have The Germans Gained By Their Boasted Freedom Of The Press, Except The Liberty Of Abusing Each Other As They Like?

Freedom Of The Press

If You Lay Duties Upon People And Give Them No Rights, You Must Pay Them Well.

Courage And Modesty Are The Most Unequivocal Of Virtues, For They Are Of A Kind That Hypocrisy Cannot Imitate; They Too Have This Quality In Common, That They Are Expressed By The Same Color.

The Christian Religion, Though Scattered And Abroad Will In The End Gather Itself Together At The Foot Of The Cross.

Progress Has Not Followed A Straight Ascending Line, But A Spiral With Rhythms Of Progress And Retrogression, Of Evolution And Dissolution.

The Affairs Of The World Are No More Than So Much Trickery, And A Man Who Toils For Money Or Honour Or Whatever Else In Deference To The Wishes Of Others, Rather Than Because His Own Desire Or Needs Lead Him To Do So, Will Always Be A Fool.

[nature's] Crown Is Love. Only Through Love Can We Come Near Her. She Puts Gulfs Between All Things, And All Things Strive To Be Interfused. She Isolates Everything, That She May Draw Everything Together. With A Few Draughts From The Cup Of Love She Repays For A Life Full Of Trouble.

A Correct Answer Is Like An Affectionate Kiss.

Slap In The Face

The Important Thing In Life Is To Have A Great Aim, And The Determination To Attain It.

To Think Is Easy. To Act Is Hard. But The Hardest Thing In The World Is To Act In Accordance With Your Thinking.

Funny Inspirational

Inspirational Life

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

The Man Who Occupies The First Place Seldom Plays The Principal Part.

Stones Are Mute Teachers; They Silence The Observer, And The Most Valuable Lesson We Learn From Them We Cannot Communicate.

We Will Burn That Bridge When We Come To It.

What In Us The Women Leave Uncultivated, Children Cultivate When We Retain Them Near Us.

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

If You Have A Great Work In Your Head, Nothing Else Thrives Near It; All Other Thoughts Are Repelled, And The Pleasure Of Life Itself Is For The Time Lost.

No Sacred Fane Requires Us To Submit To Insult.

The Sea Is Flowing Ever, The Land Retains It Never.

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

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

Someone Criticized An Elderly Man For Wooing Young Women. He Replied That That Was The Only Way To Rejuvenation, Which Was, Afterall, Everybody's Wish.

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

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

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.

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.

Only The Heart Without A Stain Knows Ease.

An Actor Should Take Lessons From A Painter And A Sculptor.

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.

No Doubt You Are Right... There Would Be Far Less Suffering Amongst Mankind If Men... Did Not Employ Their Imaginations So Assiduously In Recalling The Memory Of Past Sorrow, Instead Of Bearing Their Present Lot With Equanimity.

Viewed From The Summit Of Reason, All Life Looks Like A Malignant Disease And The World Like A Madhouse.

America, You Have It Better Than Our Continent, The Old One.

Oh God, How Do The World And Heavens Confine Themselves, When Our Hearts Tremble In Their Own Barriers!

You Can Easily Judge The Character Of A Man By How He Treats Those Who Can Do Nothing For Him.

When Intelligent And Sensible People Despise Knowledge In Their Old Age, It Is Only Because They Have Asked Too Much Of It And Of Themselves.

Hatred Is A Heavy Burden. It Sinks The Heart Deep In The Breast, And Lies Like A Tombstone On All Joys.

War Is In Truth A Disease In Which The Juices That Serve Health And Maintenance Are Used For The Sole Purpose Of Nourishing Something Foreign, Something At Odds With Nature.

The Flowers Of Life Are But Illusions. How Many Fade Away And Leave No Trace.

Sceptics Are Yet The Most Credulous.

But When All Is Said, The Greatest Art Is To Limit And Isolate Oneself.

True Happiness Springs From Moderation.

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

For A Strolling Damsel A Doubtful Reputation Bears.

The Rainbow Mirrors Human Aims And Action. Think, And More Clearly Wilt Thou Grasp It, Seeing Life Is But Light In Many-hued Reflection.

Nature Understands No Jesting. She Is Always True, Always Serious, Always Severe. She Is Always Right, And The Errors Are Always Those Of Man.

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

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

Only He Who Finds Empiricism Irksome Is Driven To Method.

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

Every Situation--nay, Every Moment--is Of Infinite Worth; For It Is The Representative Of A Whole Eternity.

Too Rigid Scruples Are Concealed Pride.

Everything Is Simpler Than One Can Imagine, And Yet Complicated And Inter-twined Beyond Comprehension.

One Would Give Generous Alms If One Had The Eyes To See The Beauty Of A Cupped Receiving Hand.

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.

One Cannot Develop Taste From What Is Of Average Quality But Only From The Very Best.

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

My Worthy Friend, Gray Are All Theories And Green Alone Life's Golden Tree.

Reason Can Never Be Popular. Passions And Feelings May Become Popular, But Reason Will Always Remain The Sole Property Of A Few Eminent Individuals.

Hope Is The Second Soul Of The Unhappy.

So Much Has Already Been Said About Shakespeare That There Doesn't Seem To Be Anything More To Say; Yet It Is The Quality Of The Spirit That It Forever Stimulates The Spirit.

All Sects Seem To Me To Be Right In What They Assert, And Wrong In What They Deny.

Beware Of Dissipating Your Powers; Strive Constantly To Concentrate Them.

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

Few People Have The Imagination For Reality.

The Happiest Man Is The One Who Finds Happiness At Home.

Finding Happiness

Few Rash Of Any Modern Nation Have A Proper Sense Of An Aesthetical Whole; They Praise And Blame By Parts; They Are Charmed By Passages. And Who Has Greater Reason To Rejoice In This Than Actors, Since The Stage Is Ever But A Patched And Piecemeal Matter?

Mozart Is A Human Incarnation Of The Divine Force Of Creation.

Since I Have Heard Often Enough That Everyone In The End Has His Own Religion, Nothing Seemed More Natural To Me Than To Fashion My Own.

We See Only What We Know.

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.

Love Can Do Much, But Duty More.

Modern Poets Mix Too Much Water With Their Ink. [ger., Neuere Poeten Thun Viel Wasser In Die Tinte.]

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

To Create Something You Must Be Something.

Mental Strength

It Is Said, That No One Is A Hero To Their Butler. The Reason Is, That It Requires A Hero To Recognize A Hero. The Butler, However, Will Probably Know Well How To Estimate His Equals.

What Am I Then...? Everything That I Have Seen, Heard, And Observed I Have Collected And Exploited. My Works Have Been Nourished By Countless Different Individuals, By Innocent And Wise Ones, People Of Intelligence And Dunces. Childhood, Maturity And Old Age All Have Brought Me Their Thoughts....their Perspectives On Life. I Have Often Reaped What Others Have Sowed. My Work Is The Work Of A Collective Being That Bears The Name Goethe.

The New Vulcanism Is Really A Daring Attempt To Connect The Present, Incomprehensible World To A Past, Unknown One.

The Greatest Act Of Faith Takes Place When A Man Finally Decides That He Is Not God.

Everyone Is Deceived In His Hopes, Cheated In His Expectations.

Association With Women Is The Basis Of Good Manners.

Ohne Hast, Aber Ohne Rast. - Without Haste, But Without Rest.

A Well-bred Carriage Is Difficult To Imitate; For In Strictness It Is Negative, And It Implies A Long-continued Previous Training.

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.

I Bid The Chords Sweet Music Make, And All Must Follow In My Wake.

For Many People, One Of The Most Frustrating Aspects Of Life Is Not Being Able To Understand Other People's Behavior.

To Know Of Someone Here And There Whom We Accord With, Who Is Living On With Us, Even In Silence - - This Makes Our Earthly Ball A Peopled Garden.

All Perishable Is But An Allegory.

A Wounded Heart Can With Difficulty Be Cured. [ger., Doch Ein Gekranktes Herz Erholt Sich Schwer.]

Lay Hold Of Life With Both Hands, Whenever Thou Mayest Seize It, It Is Interesting.

Alas, I Have Studied Philosophy, The Law As Well As Medicine, And To My Sorrow, Theology; Studied Them Well With Ardent Zeal, Yet Here I Am, A Wretched Fool, No Wiser Than I Was Before.

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.

To Measure Up To All That Is Demanded Of Him, A Man Must Overestimate His Capacities

There Is Nothing More Frightful Than Ignorance In Action.

Love Has The Tendency Of Pressing Together All The Lights - All The Rays Emitted From The Beloved Object By The Burning-glass Of Fantasy, - Into One Focus, And Making Of Them One Radiant Sun Without Any Spots.

Lose This Day Loitering 'twill Be The Same Old Story, Tomorrow And The Next, Even More Dilatory. Whatever You Would Do, Or Dream Of Doing, Begin It! Boldness Has Power, Genius, And Magic In It. Begin It Now.

A Flippant, Frivolous Man May Ridicule Others, May Controvert Them, Scorn Them; But He Who Has Any Respect For Himself Seems To Have Renounced The Right Of Thinking Meanly Of Others.

Let Your Trouble Be Light Will Follow Dark Though The Heaven Falls You May Hear The Lark.

We Can Redeem Anyone Who Strives Unceasingly.

Two Souls Dwell, Alas! In My Breast.

The Older I Get The More I Trust In The Law According To Which The Rose And The Lily Bloom.

I Can Promise To Be Sincere, But I Cannot Promise To Be Impartial.

The Right Man Is The One Who Seizes The Moment.

Precaution Is Better Than Cure.

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

Questions And Answers

For Precisely When Concepts Fail One, Words Are Found At The Right Time.

Are We Not Also Married To Conscience Which We Would Love To Get Rid Of Often Enough Since It Is More Bothersome Than A Man Or A Woman Ever Could Become?

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

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

Austere Perseverance, Hash And Continuous... Rarely Fails Of Its Purpose, For Its Silent Power Grows Irresistible Greater With Time.

The Flowers Of Life Are But Visionary. How Many Pass Away And Leave No Trace Behind! How Few Yield Any Fruit,--and The Fruit Itself, How Rarely Does It Ripen! And Yet There Are Flowers Enough; And Is It Not Strange, My Friend, That We Should Suffer The Little That Does Really Ripen To Rot, Decay, And Perish Unenjoyed?

Whatever Necessity Lays Upon Thee, Endure; Whatever She Commands, Do.

Whoever Strikes At Marriage Either By Word Or Act Undermines The Foundation Of All Moral Society.

What Is The Freedom Of The Most Free? To Do What Is Right!

Noble Be Man, Helpful And Good!

People Who Think Honestly And Deeply Have A Hostile Attitude Towards The Public.

As Soon As Any One Belongs To A Narrow Creed In Science, Every Unprejudiced And True Perception Is Gone.

Perseverance Is A Silent Power That Grows Irresistibly Greater With Time.

The Greatest Difficulties Lie Where We Are Not Looking For Them.

Take Care Of Your Body With Steadfast Fidelity.

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

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.

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

The Written Word Has This Advantage, That It Lasts And Can Await The Time When It Is Allowed To Take Effect.

We Often Feel That We Lack Something, And Seem To See That Very Quality In Someone Else, Promptly Attributing All Our Own Qualities To Him Too, And A Kind Of Ideal Contentment As Well. And So The Happy Mortal Is A Model Of Complete Perfection--which We Have Ourselves Created.

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.

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

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

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.

There Is No Outward Sign Of True Courtesy That Does Not Rest On A Deep Moral Foundation.

Why Go Further And Further, Look, Happiness Is Right Here. Learn How To Grab Hold Of Luck, For Luck Is Always There.

Men Are Joined By Conviction, Sundered By Opinion.

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?

Nothing Is True, But That Which Is Simple.

A Joy Shared Is A Joy Doubled.

The Work Of Art May Have A Moral Effect, But To Demand Moral Purpose From The Artist Is To Make Him Ruin His Work.

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

If Any Man Wish To Write In A Clear Style, Let Him Be First Clear In His Thoughts; And If Any Would Write In A Noble Style, Let Him First Possess A Noble Soul.

The Human Race Is A Monotonous Affair. Most People Spend The Greatest Part Of Their Time Working In Order To Live, And What Little Freedom Remains So Fills Them With Fear That They Seek Out Any And Every Means To Be Rid Of It.

Do You Want To Live Happily? Travel With Two Bags, One For Giving, The Other For Receiving.

Hell Begins The Day That God Grants You The Vision To See All That You Could Have Done, Should Have Done, And Would Have Done, But Did Not Do.

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

Don't Say That You Want To Give, But Go Ahead And Give! You'll Never Catch Up With A Mere Hope.

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