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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?

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Take Life Too Seriously,

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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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?

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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If You Must Tell Me Your Opinions, Tell Me What You Believe In. I Have Plenty Of Doubts Of My Own.

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

I Have Learned Much From Disease Which Life Could Have Never Taught Me Anywhere Else.

Energy Will Do Anything That Can Be Done In The World; And No Talents, No Circumstances, No Opportunities Will Make A Two-legged Animal A Man Without It.

The Mortal Race Is Far Too Weak Not To Grow Dizzy On Unwonted Brights. [ger., Das Sterbliche Geschlecht Ist Viel Zu Schwach In Ungewohnter Hohe Nicht Zu Schwindeln.]

It Is Only In Misery That We Recognize The Hand Of God Leading Good Men To Good.

All Ages Have Said And Repeated That One Should Strive To Know One's Self. This Is A Strange Demand Which No One Up To Now Has Measured Up To And, Strictly Considered, No One Should. With All Their Study And Effort, People Are Directed To What Is Outside, To The World About Them, And They Are Kept Busy Coming To Know This And To Master It To The Extent That Their Purposes Require. . . . How Can You Come To Know Yourself? Never By Thinking, Always By Doing. Try To Do Your Duty, And You'll Know Right Away What You Amount To. And What Is Your Duty? Whatever The Day Calls For.

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

Seize This Very Minute. What You Can Do Or Dream You Can Do, Begin It. Begin It And The Work Will Be Completed

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.

As Beauteous Is The World, And Many A Joy Floats Through Its Wide Dominion. But, Alas, When We Would Seize The Winged Good, It Flies.

When A Wife Has A Good Husband, It Is Easily Seen On Her Face.

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

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

Master And Doctor Are My Titles; For Ten Years Now, Without Repose, I Held My Erudite Recitals And Led My Pupils By The Nose.

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.

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

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

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

Even Dirt Glitters When The Sun Is Shining Upon It

Tolerance Should, Strictly Speaking, Be Only A Passing Mood; It Ought To Lead To Acknowledgment And Appreciation. To Tolerate A Person Is To Affront Him.

The Miller Believes That All The Wheat Grows So That His Mill Keeps Running.

Art Rests On A Kind Of Religious Sense, On A Deep, Steadfast Earnestness; And On This Account It Unites So Readily With Religion.

One Errs As Long As One Strives.

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

Faith Is Hidden Household Capital.

One Must Ask Children And Birds How Cherries And Strawberries Taste.

Fresh Activity Is The Only Means Of Overcoming Adversity.

I Know Nothing More Mocking Than A Devil That Despairs.

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

Science Has Been Seriously Retarded By The Study Of What Is Not Worth Knowing And Of What Is Not Knowable.

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.

To Tremble Before Anticipated Evils Is To Bemoan What Thou Hast Never Lost.

Were The Eye Not Of The Sun, How Could We Behold The Light? If God's Might And Ours Were Not As One, How Could His Work Enchant Our Sight?

Death Is Nature's Expert Advice To Get Plenty Of Life.

I Am Fully Convinced That The Soul Is Indestructible, And Its Activity Will Continue Through Eternity.

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.

How Happy He Who Can Still Hope To Lift Himself From This Sea Of Error! What We Know Not, That We Are Anxious To Possess, And Cannot Use What We Know.

I Am Not Omniscient, But I Know A Lot.

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

Can A Sparrow Know How A Stork Feels?

This Is What They All Come To Who Exclusively Harp On Experience. They Do Not Stop To Consider That Experience Is Only One Half Of Experience.

Deeply Earnest And Thoughtful People Stand On Shaky Footing With The Public.

There Are Few Who Have At Once Thought And Capacity For Action. Thought Expands, But Lames; Action Animates, But Narrows.

Thus I Reel From Desire To Fulfillment And In Fulfillment Languish For Desire.

Whatever You Can Do Or Dream, Begin It.

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

Two Souls Dwell, Alas! In My Breast.

A Reasonable Man Needs Only To Practice Moderation To Find Happiness.

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

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

I Nothing Had, And Yet Enough For Youth--joy In Illusion, Ardent Thirst For Truth. Give Unrestrained, The Old Emotion, The Bliss That Touched The Verge Of Pain, The Strength Of Hate, Love's Deep Devotion,--o, Give Me Back My Youth Again!

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

The World Is Full Of Contradiction.

I Wait For The Morning Of My Tears

The Eternal Female Draws Us Onward.

Two Souls, Alas, Are Housed Within My Breast, And Each Will Wrestle For The Mastery There.

Age Merely Shows What Children We Remain.

The Misery That Oppresses You Lies Not In Your Profession But In Yourself! What Man In The World Would Not Find His Situation Intolerable If He Chooses A Craft, An Art, Indeed Any Form Of Life, Without Experiencing An Inner Calling? Whoever Is Born With A Talent, Or To A Talent, Must Surely Find In That The Most Pleasing Of Occupations! Everything On This Earth Has Its Difficult Sides! Only Some Inner Drive - Pleasure, Love - Can Help Us Overcome Obstacles, Prepare A Path, And Lift As Out Of The Narrow Circle In Which Others Tread Out Their Anguished, Miserable Existences!

Every Spoken Word Arouses Our Self-will.

A Resolution That Is Communicated Is No Longer Within Thy Power; Thy Attentions Become Now The Plaything Of Chance; He Who Would Have His Commands Certainly Carried Out Must Take Man By Surprise.

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

There Is Strong Shadow Where There Is Much Light.

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.

It Is Delivery That Makes The Orators Success.

There Is Nothing In Life So Irrational, That Good Sense And Chance May Not Set It To Rights; Nothing So Rational, That Folly And Chance May Not Utterly Confound It.

Great Necessity Elevates Man, Petty Necessity Casts Him Down

We Blame Equally Him Who Is Too Proud To Put A Proper Value On His Own Merit And Him Who Prizes Too Highly His Spurious Worth.

The Present Is A Powerful Deity. [ger., Die Gegenwart Ist Eine Machtige Gottin.]

The Master Proves Himselin Recognizing His Limitations.

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

If You Modestly Enjoy Your Fame You Are Not Unworthy To Rank With The Holy.

Sometimes I Don't Understand How Another Can Love Her, Is Allowed To Love Her, Since I Love Her So Completely Myself, So Intensely, So Fully, Grasp Nothing, Know Nothing, Have Nothing But Her!

Collectors Are Happy People.

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

To A Valet No Man Is A Hero.

Paternity Is Based Anyhow Only Upon Conviction: I Am Convinced, Therefore, I Am The Father.

If A Man Knows Where To Get Good Advice, It Is As Though He Could Supply It Himself.

Only The Soul That Loves Is Happy

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

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

Individuality Of Expression Is The Beginning And End Of All Art.

A Good Man, Through Obscurest Aspirations Has Still An Instinct Of The One True Way.

Don't Give Us Your Doubts, Gives Us Your Certainties, For We Have Doubts Enough Of Our Own.

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

Beauty Is Everywhere A Welcome Guest.

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

One Never Learns To Understand Truly Anything But What One Loves.

We Who Didn't Inherit Political Power Nor Are Made To Acquire Riches Like Nothing Better Than That Which Expands And Solidifies The Power Of The Spirit.

With Knowledge Comes More Doubt.

Personality Is Everything In Art And Poetry.

There Is Repetition Everywhere, And Nothing Is Found Only Once In The World.

There Is No Patriotic Art.

Architecture Is Frozen Music. [ger., Die Backunst Ist Eine Erstarrte Musik.]

Do Not Give In Too Much To Feelings. A Overly Sensitive Heart Is An Unhappy Possession On This Shaky Earth.

Sensitive Person

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

We Learn To Treasure What Is Above This Earth; We Long For Revelation, Which Nowhere Burns More Purely And More Beautifully Than In The New Testament.

I Have Found A Paper Of Mine Among Some Others In Which I Call Architecture 'petrified Music.' Really There Is Something In This; The Tone Of Mind Produced By Architecture Approaches The Effect Of Music.

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

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.

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.

Each Has His Own Happiness In His Hands, As The Artist Handles The Rude Clay He Seeks To Reshape It Into A Figure; Yet It Is The Same With This Art As With All Others: Only The Capacity For It Is Innate; The Art Itself Must Be Learned And Painstakingly Practiced.

In The End We Are All Separate: Our Stories, No Matter How Similar, Come To A Fork And Diverge. We Are Drawn To Each Other Because Of Our Similarities, But It Is Our Differences We Must Learn To Respect.

One Lives But Once In The World.

A Stated Truth Loses Its Grace, But A Repeated Error Appears Insipid And Ridiculous.

Everything In The World May Be Endured, Except Only A Succession Of Prosperous Days. [ger., Alles In Der Welt Lasst Sich Ertragen, Nur Nicht Eine Reihe Von Schonen Tagen.]

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

It Is With Art As With Love: How Can A Man Of The World,with All His Distractions, Keep The Inwardness Which An Artist Must Possess If He Hopes To Attain Perfection? That Inwardness Which The Spectator Must Share If He Is To Understand The Work As The Artist Wishes And Hopes... Believe Me, Talents Are Like Virtues; Either You Must Love Them For Their Own Sake Or Renounce Them Altogether. And They Are Only Recognized And Rewarded When We Have Practised Them In Secret, Like A Dangerous Mystery."

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

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

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

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

The Hardest Thing Is To See What's Under Your Very Eyes.

Presents At Once? That's Good. He Is Sure To Succeed.

There Is Nothing More Frightful Than Ignorance In Action.

Where Confidence Is Wanting, The Most Beautiful Flower In The Garland Of Love Is Missing.

It Is A Misfortune To Pass At Once From Observation To Conclusion, And To Regard Both As Of Equal Value; But It Befalls Many A Student.

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.

I Do Not Know Myself, And God Forbid That I Should.

Sin Writes Histories, Goodness Is Silent. [ger., Das Uebel Macht Eine Geschichte Und Das Gute Keine.]

One Does Not Get To Know That One Exists Until One Rediscovers Oneself In Others.

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

And I Like Those Authors Best Whose Scenes Describe My Own Situation In Life-- And The Friends Who Are About Me Whose Stories Touch Me With Interest, From Resembling My Own Homely Existence.

Situations In Life

Mediocrity Has No Greater Consolation Than In The Thought That Genius Is Not Immortal.

It Is So Hard That One Cannot Really Have Confidence In Doctors And Yet Cannot Do Without Them.

Have Confidence

Well-mannered Children Could Be Conceived If The Parents Were Well-mannered.

The Useful May Be Trusted To Further Itself, For Many Produce It And No One Can Do Without It; But The Beautiful Must Be Specially Encouraged, For Few Can Present It, While Yet All Have Need Of It.

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

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.

We Can Redeem Anyone Who Strives Unceasingly.

And Here, Poor Fool, With All My Lore I Stand No Wiser Than Before.

Everybody Wants To Be Somebody; Nobody Wants To Grow.

Children, Love One Another, And If That Is Not Possible-at Least Try To Put Up With One Another.

Love One Another

We Are Pantheists When We Study Nature, Polytheists When We Write Poetry, Monotheists In Our Morality.

The World Of Reason Is To Be Regarded As A Great And Immortal Being, Who Ceaselessly Works Out What Is Necessary, And So Makes Himself Lord Also Over What Is Accidental.

I Am Amazed To See How Deliberately I Have Entangled Myself Step By Step. To Have Seen My Position So Clearly, And Yet To Have Acted So Like A Child!

Man Errs, Till He Has Ceased To Strive.

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

How Shall We Plan, That All Be Fresh And New-- Important Matter Yet Attractive Too? [ger., Wie Machen Wir's, Dass Alles Frisch Und Neu Und Mit Bedeutung Auch Gefallig Sei?]

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

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

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

I Have Observed That As Long As One Lives And Bestirs Himself, He Can Always Find Food And Raiment, Though It May Not Be Of The Choicest Description.

What Is Not Started Today Is Never Finished Tomorrow.

Correction Does Much, But Encouragement Does More.

Many Hammer All Over The Wall And Believe That With Each Blow They Hit The Nail On The Head.

Mannerism Always Wants To Be Finished And Doesn't Enjoy The Process. Genuine, Truly Great Talent, However, Finds Its Greatest Satisfaction In The Production.

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.

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

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

I Am Certain That I Have Been Here As I Am Now A Thousand Times Before, And I Hope To Return A Thousand Times... Man Is A Dialogue Between Nature And God. On Other Planets This Dialogue Will Doubtless Be Of A Higher And Profounder Character. What Is Lacking Is Self-knowledge. After That The Rest Will Follow.

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

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

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.]

The Formation Of One's Character Ought To Be Everyone's Chief Aim.

How Fair Doth Nature Appear Again! How Bright The Sunbeams! How Smiles The Plain! The Flow'rs Are Bursting From Ev'ry Bough, And Thousand Voices Each Bush Yields Now. And Joy And Gladness Fill Ev'ry Breast! Oh Earth!-oh Sunlight! Oh Rapture Blest! Oh Love! Oh Loved One!

Culture Which Smooth The Whole World Licks, Also Unto The Devil Sticks.

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

The Whole Art Of Living Consists In Giving Up Existence In Order To Exist.

Whoever Aspiring, Struggles On, For Him There Is Salvation.

The World Cannot Do Without Great Men, But Great Men Are Very Troublesome To The World.

Hope Enough To Remove All Anxious Fears Concerning The Future.

Art Is Long, Life Short, Judgment Difficult, Opportunity Transient. To Act Is Easy, To Think Is Hard; To Act According To Our Thought Is Troublesome. Every Beginning Is Cheerful: The Threshold Is The Place Of Expectation.

Mountains Cannot Be Surmounted Except By Winding Paths.

It Is In The Half Fools And The Half Wise That The Greatest Danger Lies.

Toleration Ought In Reality To Be Merely A Transitory Mood. It Must Lead To Recognition. To Tolerate Is To Affront.

One Of The Most Striking Signs Of The Decay Of Art Is The Intermixing Of Different Genres.

Character Is Constructed Amidst The Tempests Of The World

One Cannot Always Be A Hero, But One Can Always Be A Man.

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

How Circumscribed Is Woman's Destiny!

Is This The Destiny Of Man? Is He Only Happy Before He Has Acquired His Reason Or After He Has Lost It?

If Each One Does Their Duty As An Individual And If Each One Works In Their Own Proper Vocation, It Will Be Right With The Whole.

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

Willing Is Not Enough, We Must Do.

Those Who Have No Hope For A Future Life Are Already Dead For The Present One.

Mankind? That Is An Abstraction. There Have Always Been And Always Will Be Only Individuals.

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

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.

For That Is Love's Nature That It Lays Claim To Exclusive Right And That All Other Claims Are Nil.

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.

So, Lively Brisk Old Fellow, Don't Let Age Get You Down. White Hairs Or Not, You Can Still Be A Lover.

Not Art And Science Only, But Patience Will Be Required For The Work.

Art And Science

Riches Amassed In Haste Will Diminish; But Those Collected By Hand And Little By Little Will Multiply.

One Criticizes The English For Carrying Their Teapots Wherever They Go, Even Lugging Them Up Mount Etna. But Doesn't Every Nationhave Its Teapot, In Which, Even When Traveling, It Brews The Dried Bundles Of Herbs Brought From Home?

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.

We Will Burn That Bridge When We Come To It.

People Will Allow Their Faults To Be Shown Them; They Will Let Themselves Be Punished For Them; They Will Patiently Endure Many Things Because Of Them; They Only Become Impatient When They Have To Lay Them Aside.

Gifts Come From Above In Their Own Peculiar Forms. [ger., Die Gaben Kommen Von Oben Herab, In Ihren Eignen Gestalten.]

True Happiness Springs From Moderation.

Who Longs In Solitude To Live, Ah! Soon His Wish Will Gain: Men Hope And Love, Men Get And Give, And Leave Him To His Pain.

Talk Well Of The Absent Whenever You Have The Opportunity.

New Inventions Can And Will Be Made; However, Nothing New Can Be Thought Of That Concerns Moral Man. Everything Has Already Been Thought And Said Which At Best We Can Express In Different Forms And Give New Expressions To.

Merely To Breathe Freely Does Not Mean To Live.

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

I Hate Every Violent Overthrow, Because As Much Is Destroyed As Is Gained By It.

Man... Knows Only When He Is Satisfied And When He Suffers, And Only His Sufferings And His Satisfactions Instruct Him Concerning Himself, Teach Him What To Seek And What To Avoid. For The Rest, Man Is A Confused Creature; He Knows Not Whence He Comes Or Whither He Goes, He Knows Little Of The World, And Above All, He Knows Little Of Himself.

Each Ten Years Of A Man's Life Has Its Own Fortunes, Its Own Hopes, Its Own Desires.

No Two Men See The World Exactly Alike, And Different Temperaments Will Apply In Different Ways A Principle That They Both Acknowledge.

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

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