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Mathematics Can Remove No Prejudices And Soften No Obduracy. It Has No Influence In Sweetening The Bitter Strife Of Parties, And In The Moral World Generally Its Action Is Perfectly Null.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Mathematics Can Remove No

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Mathematics Can Remove No Prejudices And Soften No Obduracy. It Has No Influence In Sweetening The Bitter Strife Of Parties, And In The Moral World Generally Its Action Is Perfectly Null.

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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When The Healthy Nature Of Man Acts As A Whole, When He Feels Himself To Be In The World As In A Great, Beautiful, Noble, And Valued Whole, When Harmonious Ease Affords Him A Pure And Free Delight, Then The Universe, If It Could Experience Itself, Would Exult, As Having Attained Its Goal, And Admire The Climax Of Its Own Becoming And Essence.

Theories Are Usually The Over-hasty Efforts Of An Impatient Understanding That Would Gladly Be Rid Of Phenomena, And So Puts In Their Place Pictures, Notions, Nay, Often Mere Words.

It Is Said That No Man Is A Hero To His Valet. That Is Because A Hero Can Be Recognized Only By A Hero.

The Most Damaging Prejudice Consists Of Banning Any Kind Of Investigation Of Nature.

Divide And Command, A Wise Maxim; Unite And Guide, A Better.

By Nature We Have No Defect That Could Not Become A Strength, No Strength That Could Not Become A Defect.

Where There Is Much Light, The Shadows Are Deepest. [ger., Wo Viel Licht Is, Ist Starker Schatten.]

People Are Always Talking About Originality; But What Do They Mean? As Soon As We Are Born, The World Begins To Work Upon Us; And This Goes On To The End. And After All, What Can We Call Our Own, Except Energy, Strength, And Will? If I Could Give An Account Of All That I Owe To Great Predecessors And Contemporaries, There Would Be But A Small Balance In My Favor.

Know'st Thou Yesterday, Its Aim And Reason? Work'st Thou Will Today For Worthier Things? Then Calmly Wait The Morrow's Hidden Season, And Fear Thou Not, What Hap Soe'er It Brings

I Treat My Heart Like A Sick Child And Gratify Its Every Fancy

Beauty Vanishes; Virtue Is Lasting.

He Only Earns His Freedom And His Life Who Takes Them Every Day By Storm.

This Is The True Measure Of Love, When We Believe That We Alone Can Love, That No One Could Ever Have Loved So Before Us, And That No One Will Ever Love In The Same Way After Us.

Some Of Our Weaknesses Are Born In Us, Others Are The Result Of Education; It Is A Question Which Of The Two Gives Us Most Trouble.

When Ideas Fail, Words Come In Very Handy.

Take Care Of Your Body With Steadfast Fidelity.

One Is Never Satisfied With A Portrait Of Persons Whom One Knows. That Is Why I Have Always Pitied Portraitists. One Demands So Seldom Of Others The Impossible, But Demands Just That Of The Portraitists.

I Had Rather Be Mercury, The Smallest Among Seven [planets], Revolving Round The Sun, Than The First Among Five [moons] Revolving Round Saturn.

For A Strolling Damsel A Doubtful Reputation Bears. [ger., Denn Ein Wanderndes Madchen Ist Immer Von Schwankendem Rufe.]

The Soul That Sees Beauty May Sometimes Walk Alone.

I Wish The Stage Were As Narrow As The Wire Of A Tighrope Dancer So That No Incompetent Would Dare Step Upon It.

From Desire I Plunge To Its Fulfilment, Where I Long Once More For Desire.

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

The World Only Goes Forward Because Of Those Who Oppose It.

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

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

You Can Put Up With Everything In This World Except Not With A Long Stretch Of Beautiful Days.

To Act Is Easy; To Think Is Hard.

No One As Ever Completed Their Apprenticeship.

Smoothly And Lightly The Golden Seed By The Furrow Is Covered.

Everyone Only Hears What He Understands.

He Who Can Not Learn To Love Must Flatter.

None Are More Hopelessly Enslaved Than Those Who Falsely Believe They Are Free.

No One Can Take From Us The Joy Of The First Becoming Aware Of Something, The So-called Discovery. But If We Also Demand The Honor, It Can Be Utterly Spoiled For Us, For We Are Usually Not The First. What Does Discovery Mean, And Who Can Say That He Has Discovered This Or That? After All It's Pure Idiocy To Brag About Priority; For It's Simply Unconscious Conceit, Not To Admit Frankly That One Is A Plagiarist.

Character - In Things Great And Small - Is Indicated When A Man (or Person) Pursues With Sustained Follow-through What He Feels Himself Capable Of Doing.

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.

I Do Not Speak Of What I Cannot Praise.

Shakespeare Is A Great Psychologist, And Whatever Can Be Known Of The Heart Of Man May Be Found In His Plays.

Everything Has Been Thought Of Before, But The Problem Is To Think Of It Again.

The Force Of A Language Does Not Consist Of Rejecting What Is Foreign But Of Swallowing It.

We Have Time Enough If We But Use It Aright

To Blow Is Not To Play On The Flute; You Must Move The Fingers. [ger., Blasen Ist Nicht Floten, Ihr Musst Die Finger Bewegen.]

Objects In Pictures Should So Be Arranged As By Their Very Position To Tell Their Own Story.

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

Everything Great And Intelligent Is In The Minority

I Call Architecture Frozen Music.

All That Is Alive Tends Toward Color, Individuality, Specificity, Effectiveness And Opacity. All That Is Done With Life Inclines Toward Knowledge, Abstraction, Generality Transfiguration And Transparency.

All Theory, Dear Friend, Is Gray, But The Golden Tree Of Life Springs Ever Green.

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

Help Me To Discover Thy Truth, O Lord, And Preserve Me From Those Who Have Already Found It

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

Man's Highest Merit Always Is, As Much As Possible, To Rule External Circumstances And As Little As Possible To Let Himself Be Ruled By Them.

The Beautiful Is A Phenomenon Which Is Never Apparent Of Itself, But Is Reflected In A Thousand Different Works Of The Creator.

Thou Must (in Commanding And Winning, Or Serving And Losing, Suffering Or Triumphing) Be Either Anvil Or Hammer.

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.

He Who Possesses Art And Science Has Religion; He Who Does Not Possess Them, Needs Religion.

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.

Art Is A Mediator Of The Unspeakable.

Man Can Only Endure A Certain Degree Of Unhappiness; What Is Beyond That Either Annihilates Him Or Passes By Him And Leaves Him Apathetic

Properly Speaking, We Learn From Those Books Only That We Cannot Judge. The Author Of A Book That I Am Competent To Criticise Would Have To Learn From Me.

Oh How Sweet It Is To Hear One's Own Convictions From Another's Lips.

Desire Is The Presentiment Of Our Inner Abilities, And The Forerunner Of Our Ultimate Accomplishments.

There Is Not A Single Outward Mark Of Courtesy That Does Not Have A Deep Moral Basis.

Everything That Frees Our Spirit Without Giving Us Control Of Ourselves Is Ruinous.

Whatever You Cannot Understand, You Cannot Possess.

Understanding And Love

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

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

All Truly Wise Thoughts Have Been Thought Already Thousands Of Times; But To Make Them Truly Ours, We Must Think Them Over Again Honestly, Until They Take Root In Our Personal Experience.

Thought Expands, But Paralyzes; Action Animates, But Narrows.

Chess Is The Touchstone Of Intellect.

Mysterious In The Light Of Day, Nature Retains Her Veil, Despite Our Clamours: That Which She Does Not Willingly Display Cannot Be Wrenched From Her With Levers, Screws And Hammers.

If You Treat Men The Way They Are You Never Improve Them. If You Treat Them The Way You Want Them To Be, You Do.

One Mind Is Enough For A Thousand Hands.

Oral Delivery Aims At Persuasion And Making The Listener Believe They Are Converted. Few Persons Are Capable Of Being Convinced The Majority Allow Themselves To Be Persuaded.

Hatred Is Something Peculiar. You Will Always Find It Strongest And Most Violent Where There Is The Lowest Degree Of Culture.

Let Us Live In As Small A Circle As We Will, We Are Either Debtors Or Creditors Before We Have Had Time To Look Around.

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

A Vi'let On The Meadow Grew, That No One Saw, That No One Knew, It Was A Modest Flower. A Shepherdess Pass'd By That Way-- Light Footed, Pretty And So Gay; That Way She Came, Softly Warbling Forth Her Lay.

He Who Cannot Draw On Three Thousand Years Is Living From Hand To Mouth.

Men's Prejudices Rest Upon Their Character For The Time Being And Cannot Be Overcome, As Being Part And Parcel Of Themselves. Neither Evidence Nor Common Sense Nor Reason Has The Slightest Influence Upon Them.

Yes! To This Thought I Hold With Firm Persistence; The Last Result Of Wisdom Stamps It True; He Only Earns His Freedom And Existence Who Daily Conquers Them Anew.

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

What I Possess I Would Gladly Retain. Change Amuses The Mind, Yet Scarcely Profits.

The Old Lose One Of The Greatest Privileges Of Man, For They Are No Longer Judged By Their Contemporaries.

No Prudent Antagonist Thinks Light Of His Adversaries.

No Two Men See The World Exactly Alike, And Different Temperaments Will Apply In Different Ways A Principle That They Both Acknowledge. The Same Man Will, Indeed, Often See And Judge The Same Things Differently On Different Occasions: Early Convictions Must Give Way To More Mature Ones. Nevertheless, May Not The Opinions That A Man Holds And Expresses Withstand All Trials, If He Only Remains True To Himself And Others?

For I Have Been A Man, And That Means To Have Been A Fighter.

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.

If You Start To Think Of Your Physical And Moral Condition, You Usually Find That You Are Sick.

Live Dangerously And You Live Right.

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

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

There Is No Crime Of Which I Do Not Deem Myself Capable.

A Useless Life Is An Early Death.

Sameness Leaves Us In Peace But It Is Contradiction That Makes Us Productive.

Every Day Look At A Beautiful Picture, Read A Beautiful Poem, Listen To Some Beautiful Music, And If Possible, Say Some Reasonable Thing.

Life Is But A Preparation For What There Is To Come.

We Can Stand Only A Certain Amount Of Unhappiness; Anything Beyond That Annihilates Us Or Passes Us By, Leaving Us Apathethetic.

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 Rich Want Good Wine, The Poor, Plenty Of Wine

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.

Let There Be Truth Between Us.

To Hard Necessity Ones Will And Fancy Must Conform.

Enjoy What You Can, Endure What You Must.

Superstition Is The Poetry Of Life. It Is Inherent In Man's Nature; And When We Think It Is Wholly Eradicated, It Takes Refuge In The Strangest Holes And Corners, Whence It Peeps Out All At Once, As Soon As It Can Do It With Safety.

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

The Fine Emotions Whence Our Lives We Mold Lie In The Earthly Tumult Dumb And Cold.

Words Are Good, But There Is Something Better. The Best Cannot Be Explained By Words. The Spirit In Which We Act Is The Chief Matter. Action Can Only Be Only Understood And Represented By The Spirit.

Neither A Work Of Nature Nor One Of Art We Get To Know When They Have Been Finished; We Must Surprise Them In The Process Of Beingcreated So As To Understand Them To Some Degree.

The Threshold Is The Place Of Expectation.

There Are People Who Make No Mistakes Because They Never Wish To Do Anything Worth Doing.

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

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

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.

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

He Only Fears Men Who Does Not Know Them, And He Who Avoids Them Will Soon Misjudge Them.

What Men Usually Say Of Misfortunes, That They Never Come Alone, May With Equal Truth Be Said Of Good Fortune; Nay, Of Other Circumstances Which Gather Round Us In A Harmonious Way, Whether It Arise From A Kind Of Fatality, Or That Man Has The Power Of Attracting To Himself Things That Are Mutually Related.

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

The People Rate Strength Before Everything.

Woman Is Mistress Of The Art Of Completely Imbittering The Life Of The Person On Whom She Depends.

Everywhere, We Learn Only From Those Whom We Love.

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

Whoso Is Content With Pure Experience And Acts Upon It Has Enough Of Truth.

Who Strives Always To The Utmost, Him Can We Save.

Legislators And Revolutionaries Who Promise Both Equality And Liberty Are Visionaries And Charlatans.

One Says A Lot In Vain, Refusing; The Other Mainly Hears The "no."

The History Of Science Is Science Itself; The History Of The Individual, The Individual.

We Are Shaped And Fashioned By What We Love

Our Foibles Are Really What Make Us Lovable.

For To Give Is The Business Of The Rich. [lat., Denn Geben Ist Sache Des Reichen.]

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

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?

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

If I Say To The Moment: 'stay Now! You Are So Beautiful'!

How Circumscribed Is Woman's Destiny!

To Venture An Opinion Is Like Moving A Piece At Chess: It May Be Taken, But It Forms The Beginning Of A Game That Is Won.

Giving Is The Business Of The Rich.

The Absence Of Temptation Is The Absence Of Virtue.

Beware Of A Man Of One Book.

Whatever Is The Lot Of Humankind I Want To Taste Within My Deepest Self. I Want To Seize The Highest And The Lowest, To Load Its Woe And Bliss Upon My Breast, And Thus Expand My Single Self Titanically And In The End Go Down With All The Rest.

What You Have Inherited From Your Fathers, Earn Over Again For Yourselves, Or It Will Not Be Yours.

He Who Does Not See The Whole World In His Friends, Does Not Deserve That The World Should Hear Of Him.

Words Are Mere Sound And Smoke, Dimming The Heavenly Light.

Death Is A Commingling Of Eternity With Time; In The Death Of A Good Man, Eternity Is Seen Looking Through Time.

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

The Soul Of The Christian Religion Is Reverence.

The Clever Reader Who Is Capable Or Reading Between These Lines What Does Not Stand Written In Them But Is Nevertheless Implied Will Be Able To Form Some Conception.

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

He Who Is Resolute Conquers Grief.

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

Truth Is A Torch, But A Huge One, And So It Is Only With Blinking Eyes What We All Of Us Try To Get Past It, In Actual Terror Of Being Burnt.

One Glance, One Word From You Gives More Pleasure Than All The Wisdom Of This World.

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

A Man May Twist As He Pleases, And Do What He Pleases, But He Inevitably Comes Back To The Track To Which Nature Has Destined Him.

Every Spoken Word Arouses Our Self-will.

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

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

We Amuse Ourselves Painting Our Prison-walls With Bright Figures And Brilliant Landscapes.

Every Offense Is Avenged On Earth.

To Make Converts Is The Natural Ambition Of Everyone.

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.

It Used To Happen, And Still Happens, To Me To Take No Pleasure In A Work Of Art At The First Sight Of It, Because It Is Too Much For Me; But If I Suspect Any Merit In It, I Try To Get At It; And Then I Never Fail To Make The Most Gratifying Discoveries--to Find New Qualities In The Work Itself And New Faculties In Myself.

Who Is The Wisest Man? He Who Neither Knows Or Wishes For Anything Else Than What Happens.

For The Nature Of A Women Is Closely Allied To Art. [ger., Denn Das Naturell Der Frauen Ist So Nah Mit Kunst Verwandt.]

What Is My Life If I Am No Longer Useful To Others.

The Greatest Step Forward Would Be To See That Everything Factual Is Already Theory. The Blueness Of The Sky Reveals The Basic Lawof Chromatics. Don't Look For Anything Behind The Phenomena, They Themselves Are The Doctrine.

The Man Who Acts Never Has Any Conscience; No One Has Any Conscience But The Man Who Thinks

It Is Not Doing The Thing We Like To Do, But Liking The Thing We Have To Do, That Makes Life Blessed.

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.

Art Is Constitutive-the Artist Determines Beauty. He Does Not Take It Over.

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than Solitude.

Writing History Is A Method Of Getting Rid Of The Past.

It Is The Fortunate Who Should Extol Fortune. [ger., Das Gluck Erhebe Billig Der Begluckte.]

Colors Are The Deeds/ And Sufferings Of Light.

Just Trust Yourself And You'll Learn The Art Of Living.

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 Is Happy As Well As Great Who Needs Neither To Obey Nor To Command In Order To Be Something.

A Clever Man Commits No Minor Blunders.

Whoever Makes It A Rule To Test Action By Thought, Thought By Action, Cannot Falter, And If He Does, Will Soon Find His Way Back To The Right Road.

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

What Reason Would Grope For In Vain, Spontaneous Impulse Ofttimes Achieves At A Stroke, With Light And Pleasureful Guidance.

The Solution Of Every Problem Is Another Problem

We Can Always Redeem The Man Who Aspires And Strives.

Out Of Moderation A Pure Happiness Springs.

The Best Way To Understand A Painting Is By Drawing It.

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

Never By Reflection, But Only By Doing Is Self- Knowledge Possible To One.

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

Necessity Is Cruel, But It Is The Only Test Of Inward Strength. Every Fool May Live According To His Own Likings.

It Will Be! The Mass Is Working Clearer! Conviction Gathers, Truer, Nearer! The Mystery Which For Man In Nature Lies We Dare To Test, By Knowledge Led; And That Which She Was Wont To Organize We Crystallize, Instead.

Nothing Will Change The Fact That I Cannot Produce The Least Thing Without Absolute Solitude.

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.

Nothing Is Worth More Than This Day. You Cannot Relive Yesterday. Tomorrow Is Still Beyond Your Reach.

Nature! We Are Enveloped And Embraced By Her, Incapable Of Emerging From Her And Incapable Of Entering Her More Deeply. Unbidden And Unwarned, She Receives Us Into The Circuits Of Her Dance, Drifting Onward With Us Herself, Until We Grow Tired And Drop From Her Arms.

This World Could Not Exist If It Were Not So Simple. The Ground Has Been Tilled A Thousand Years, Yet Its Powers Remain Ever The Same; A Little Rain, A Little Sun, And Each Spring It Grows Green Again.

Care Is Taken That Trees Do Not Grow Into The Sky. [ger., Es Ist Dafur Gesorgt, Dass Die Baume Nicht In Den Himmel Wachsen.]

One Is Led Astray Alike By Sympathy And Coldness, By Praise And By Blame

Could We Perfect Human Nature, We Might Also Expect A Perfect State Of Things.

Waste Not A Day In Vain Digression; With Resolute, Courageous Trust Seek Every Possible Impression And Make It Firmly Your Posession You'll Then Work On Because You Must.

Experiments Are Mediators Between Nature And Idea.

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