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The Thinking Person Has The Strange Characteristic To Like To Create A Fantasy In The Place Of The Unsolved Problem, A Fantasy That Stays With The Person Even When The Problem Has Been Solved And Truth Made Its Appearance.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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The Thinking Person Has

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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The Thinking Person Has The Strange Characteristic To Like To Create A Fantasy In The Place Of The Unsolved Problem, A Fantasy That Stays With The Person Even When The Problem Has Been Solved And Truth Made Its Appearance.

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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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

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

All Understanding Begins In Wonder!

Many Young Painters Would Never Have Taken Their Pencils In Hand If They Could Have Felt, Known, And Understood, Early Enough, What Really Produced A Master Like Raphael.

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

Behavior Is A Mirror In Which Every One Shows His Image. [ger., Das Betragen Ist Ein Spiegel In Welchem Jeder Sein Bild Zeigt.]

One Is Never Deceived; One Deceives Oneself.

Unlimited Activity, Of Whatever Kind, Must End In Bankruptcy.

Sometimes Our Fate Resembles A Fruit Tree In Winter. Who Would Think That Those Branches Would Turn Green Again And Blossom, But We Hope It, We Know It.

Character Develops Itself In The Stream Of Life.

Self Knowledge Is Best Learned Not By Contemplation, But By Action.

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.

Only The Soul That Loves Is Happy

If In The Infinite You Want To Stride, Just Walk In The Finite To Every Side.

The Mark Of Highest Originality Lies In The Ability To Develop A Familiar Idea So Fruitfully That It Would Seem No One Else Would Ever Have Discovered So Much To Be Hidden In It.

A Clever Man Commits No Minor Blunders.

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.

No One Feels Himself Easy In A Garden Which Does Not Look Like The Open Country.

Our Virtues And View Spring From One Root.

Happy Is It, Indeed, For Me That My Heart Is Capable Of Feeling The Same Simple And Innocent Pleasure As The Peasant Whose Table Is Covered With Food Of His Own Rearing, And Who Not Only Enjoys His Meal, But Remembers With Delight The Happy Days And Sunny Mornings When He Planted It, The Soft Evenings When He Watered It, And The Pleasure He Experienced In Watching Its Daily Growth.

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

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

The Highest Cannot Be Spoken; It Can Only Be Acted.

The Man Who Masters Himself Is Delivered From The Force That Binds All Creatures.

One Must Be Something, In Order To Do Something.

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.

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

Those Who Make Use Of Devotion As A Means And End Generally Are Hypocrites.

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

Happy Contractedness Of Youth, Nay, Of Mankind In General, That They Think Neither Of The High Nor The Deep, Of The True Nor The False, But Only Of What Is Suited To Their Own Conceptions.

Hope Enough To Remove All Anxious Fears Concerning The Future.

The World Is So Great And Rich, And Life So Full Of Variety, That You Can Never Lack Occasions For Poems.

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

Ah! My Poor Brain Is Racked And Crazed, My Spirit And Senses Amazed!

All The Knowledge I Possess Everyone Else Can Acquire, But My Heart Is All My Own.

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

Questions And Answers

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

I Had Toward The Poetic Art A Peculiar Relation Which Was Only Practical After I Had Cherished In My Mind For A Long Time A Subject Which Possessed Me, A Model Which Inspired Me, A Predecessor Who Attracted Me, Until At Length, After I Had Molded It

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

Sacrificing Everything

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

Let Mental Culture Go On Advancing, Let The Natural Sciences Progress In Even Greater Extent And Depth, And The Human Mind Widen Itself As Much As It Desires: Beyond The Elevation And Moral Culture Of Christianity, As It Shines Forth In The Gospels, It Will Not Go.

Analysis And Synthesis Are Both As Necessary To The Thinking Spirit As Inspiration And Expiration To The Organism.

What Sort Of Faults May We Retain, Nay, Even Cherish In Ourselves? Those Faults Which Are Rather Pleasant Than Offensive To Others.

If One Doesn't Know One's Own Country, One Doesn't Have Standards For Foreign Countries.

Give Me Those Days With Heart In Riot, The Depths Of Bliss That Touched On Pain, The Force Of Hate, And Love's Disquiet- Ah, Give Me Back My Youth Again!

Live Dangerously And You Live Right.

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

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

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

Hatred Is Active Displeasure, Envy Passive. We Need Not Wonder That Envy Turns To Soon To Hatred.

Rejoice That You Have Still Have A Long Time To Live, Before The Thought Comes To You That There Is Nothing More In The World To See.

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

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

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

Architecture Is Crystallized Music.

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.

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

We Can Redeem Anyone Who Strives Unceasingly.

Be Above It! Make The World Serve Your Purpose, But Do Not Serve It.

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

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

Commonplaceness, The Surrender To The Average, That Good Which Is Not Bad But Still The Enemy Of The Best - That Is Our Besetting Danger.

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

What Government Is The Best? That Which Teaches Us To Govern Ourselves. [ger., Welche Regierung Die Beste Sei? Diejenige Die Uns Lehrt Uns Selbst Zu Regieren.]

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

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

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.

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.

What Matters In Art Is Not Thinking But Making.

Basic Characteristics Of An Individual Organism: To Divide, To Unite, To Merge Into The Universal, To Abide In The Particular, To Transform Itself, To Define Itself, And As Living Things Tend To Appear Under A Thousand Conditions, To Arise And Vanish, To Solidify And Melt, To Freeze And Flow, To Expand And Contract. Since These Effects Occur Together, Any Or All May Occur At The Same Moment.

What Is Fruitful Alone Is True.

He Loves Not Who Does Not See The Faults Of The Beloved As Virtues.

The Man Of Understanding Finds Everything Laughable.

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.

The Spirit From Which We Act Is The Principal Matter.

The Wealth That Cannot Be Administered Is A Burden.

We Must Not Hope To Be Mowers, And To Gather The Ripe Gold Ears, Unless We Have First Been Sowers And Water The Furrows With Tears. It Is Not Just As We Take It, This Mystical World Of Ours, Life's Field Will Yield As We Make It A Harvest Of Thorns Or Of Flowers.

Sound And Sufficient Reason Falls, After All, To The Share Of But Few Men, And Those Few Men Exert Their Influence In Silence.

No One Would Talk Much In Society If They Knew How Often They Misunderstood Others.

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

As For Solitude, I Cannot Understand How Certain People Seek To Lay Claim To Intellectual Stature, Nobility Of Soul And Strength Of Character, Yet Have Not The Slightest Feeling For Seclusion; For Solitude, I Maintain, When Joined With A Quiet Contemplation Of Nature, A Serene And Conscious Faith In Creation And The Creator, And A Few Vexations From Outside Is The Only School For A Mind Of Lofty Endowment.

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

Colour Itself Is A Degree Of Darkness.

One Must Not Criticize That Which Is Common Since It Remains Always The Same.

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

There Is Nothing In The World More Shameful Than Establishing One's Self On Lies And Fables.

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

Mastery Passes Often For Egotism.

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

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

Let Him Who Believes In Immortality Enjoy His Happiness In Silence; He Has No Reason To Give Himself Airs About It.

How Many Years Must A Man Do Nothing, Before He Can At All Know What Is To Be Done And How To Do It!

All Rights And Laws Are Still Transmitted, Like An Eternal Sickness To The Race. [ger., Es Erben Sich Gesetz And Rechte Wie Eine Ew'ge Krankheit Fort.]

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

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

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

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?

Action Has Magic, Grace And Power In It.

We Love A Girl For Very Different Qualities Than Understanding. We Love Her For Her Beauty, Her Youth, Her Mirth, Her Confidingness, Her Character, With Its Faults, Caprices And God Knows What Other Inexpressible Charms; But We Do Not Love Her Understanding.

If Society Gives Up The Right To Impose The Death Penalty, Then Self-help Will Appear Again And Personal Vendettas Will Be Around The Corner.

Wind Is The Loving Wooer Of Waters; Wind Blends Together Billows All-foaming. Spirit Of Man, Thou Art Like Unto Water! Fortune Of Man, Thou Art Like Unto Wind!

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

Magic Is Believing In Yourself, If You Can Do That, You Can Make Anything Happen.

Against Criticism A Man Can Neither Protest Nor Defend Himself; He Must Act In Spite Of It, And Then It Will Gradually Yield To Him.

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

You Must Either Conquer And Rule Or Serve And Lose, Suffer Or Triumph, Be The Anvil Or The Hammer.

Every Man Has Enough Power Left To Carry Out That Of Which He Is Convinced.

Merely To Breathe Freely Does Not Mean To Live.

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.

Choose Well. Your Choice Is Brief, And Yet Endless.

It Is Much Easier To Meet With Error Than To Find Truth; Error Is On The Surface, And Can Be More Easily Met With; Truth Is Hid In Great Depths, The Way To Seek Does Not Appear To All The World.

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

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

What We Agree With Leaves Us Inactive, But Contradiction Makes Us Productive.

Opponents Fancy They Refute Us When They Repeat Their Own Opinion And Pay No Attention To Ours.

Strike The Dog Dead, It's But A Critic!

Modern Poets Add A Lot Of Water To Their Ink.

The Finished Man, You Know, Is Difficult To Please; A Growing Mind Will Ever Show You Gratitude. --faust 1, Lines 182-3

To Be Pleased With One's Limits Is A Wretched State.

Knowing Who You Are

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

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.

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

To Live As One Likes Is Plebian The Noble Man Aspires To Order And Law.

Clever People Are Always The Best Conversations Lexicon.

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

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

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."

Those That Are Firm In Their Will Mold The World To Themselves.

For A Brave Man Deserves A Well-endowed Girl. [ger., Denn Ein Wackerer Mann Verdient Ein Begutertes Madchen.]

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

Art Will Always Be Art.

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

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

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

We All Walk In Mysteries. We Are Surrounded By An Atmosphere About Which We Still Know Nothing At All.

One That Does Not Think To Highly Of Himself Is More Than He Thinks.

We Usually Lose Today, Because There Has Been A Yesterday, And Tomorrow Is Coming.

Certain Faults Are Necessary To The Individual If He Is To Exist.

It Is A Very Hard And Troublesome Thing To Dispose Of Whole, Half, And Quarter-mistakes; To Sift Them And Assign The Portion Of Truth To Its Proper Place.

Two Souls Dwell, Alas! In My Breast.

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

A Man's Errors Are What Make Him Amiable.

Thinking Is More Interesting Than Knowing, But Less Interesting Than Looking.

The Intelligent Man Finds Almost Everything Ridiculous, The Sensible Man Hardly Anything.

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

With Knowledge Comes More Doubt.

When One Is Polite In German, One Lies.

As Man Is, So Is His God. And Thus Is God Oft Strangely Odd.

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

I Know Nothing More Mocking Than A Devil That Despairs.

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.

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

Thought Provoking

Nothing Is More Consonant With Nature Than That She Puts Into Operation In The Smallest Detail That Which She Intends As A Whole.

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.

Every Form Correctly Seen Is Beautiful

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

Errors Belong To Libraries; Truth, To The Human Mind.

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

The Poet Should Seize The Particular, And He Should, If There Be Anything Sound In It, Thus Represent The Universal.

Willing Is Not Enough, We Must Do.

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

Love Grants In A Moment What Toil Can Hardly Acheive In An Age.

I Must Consider More Closely This Cycle Of Good And Bad Days Which I Find Coursing Within Myself. Passion, Attachment, The Urge To Action, Inventiveness, Performance, Order All Alternate And Keep Their Orbit; Cheerfulness, Vigor, Energy, Flexibility And Fatigue, Serenity As Well As Desire. Nothing Disturbs The Cycle For I Lead A Simple Life, But I Must Still Find The Time And Order In Which I Rotate.

Our Destiny Often Looks Like A Fruit-tree In Winter. Who Would Think From Its Pitiable Aspect That Those Rigid Boughs, Those Rough Twigs Could Next Spring Again Be Green, Bloom, And Even Bear Fruit? Yet We Hope It, We Know It.

He Who Would Reproach An Author For Obscurity Should Look Into His Own Mind To See Whether It Is Quite Clear There. In The Dusk The Plainest Writing Is Illegible.

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

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?

Someday Perhaps The Inner Light Will Shine Forth From Us, And The We'll Need No Other Light.

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

Mystery Is Truth's Dancing Partner.

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

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

Perfection Is The Measure Of Heaven, And The Wish To Be Perfect The Measure Of Man.

As To The Value Of Conversions, God Alone Can Judge. God Alone Can Know How Wide Are The Steps Which The Soul Has To Take Before It Can Approach To A Community With Him, To The Dwelling Of The Perfect, Or To The Intercourse And Friendship Of Higher Natures.

So Then The Year Is Repeating Its Old Story Again. We Are Come Once More, Thank God! To Its Most Charming Chapter. The Violets And The Mayflowers Are As Its Inscriptions Or Vignettes. It Always Makes A Pleasant Impression On Us, When We Open Again At These Pages Of The Book Of Life.

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

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

Who Is Sure Of Their Own Motives Can In Confidence Advance Or Retreat.

If Only These Treasures Were Not So Fragile As They Are Precious And Beautiful.

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

Faust: Who Holds The Devil, Let Him Hold Him Well, He Hardly Will Be Caught A Second Time.

How Marvelous, Wide And Broad Is My Inheritance! Time Is My Property, My Estate Is Time.

Chess Is The Touchstone Of Intellect.

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

Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine.

Life Is Too Short

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.

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

They Teach In Academies Far Too Many Things, And Far Too Much That Is Useless.

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.

Giving Is The Business Of The Rich.

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

Humans Fear Reason, But They Ought To Fear Stupidity- For Reason Can Be Hard, But Stupidity Can Be Fatal.

Were Not The Eye Made To Receive The Rays Of The Sun, It Could Not Behold The Sun; If The Peculiar Power Of God Lay Not In Us, How Could The Godlike Charm Us?

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

A Talent Can Be Cultivated In Tranquility; A Character Only In The Rushing Stream Of Life.

The Mediator Of The Inexpressible Is The Work Of Art.

A Talent Is Formed In Stillness, A Character In The World's Torrent.

We Are Our Own Devils; We Drive Ourselves Out Of Our Edens.

The World Sees Only The Reflection Of Merit; Therefore When You Come To Know A Really Great Man Intimately, You May As Often Find Him Above As Below His Reputation.

Water Its Living Strength First Shows, When Obstacles Its Course Oppose.

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