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Truth Is A Torch But A Tremendous One. That Is Why We Hurry Past It, Shielding Our Eyes, Indeed, In Fear Of Getting Burned.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Truth Is A Torch

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Truth Is A Torch But A Tremendous One. That Is Why We Hurry Past It, Shielding Our Eyes, Indeed, In Fear Of Getting Burned.

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Plants And Flowers Of The Commonest Kind Can Form A Pleasing Diary, Because Nothing Which Calls Back To Us The Remembrance Of A Happy Moment Can Be Insignificant.

Collectors Are Happy People.

Man Is A Simple Being, And However Rich, Varied, And Unfathomable He May Be, The Cycle Of His Situations Is Soon Run Through.

Man Errs As Long As He Strives.

Sing It Not In Mournful Numbers.

There Is Nothing More Frightful Than Ignorance In Action.

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

Change Amuses The Mind, But Rarely Profits.

To Understand One Thing Well Is Better Than Understanding Many Things By Halves.

Art Is In Itself Noble; That Is Why The Artist Has No Fear Of What Is Common. This, Indeed, Is Already Ennobled When He Takes It Up.

The Art Of Governing Is A Great Metier, Requiring The Whole Man, And It Is Therefore Not Well For A Ruler To Have Too Strong Tendencies For Other Affairs.

I Always Seek The Good That Is In People And Leave The Bad To Him Who Made Mankind And Knows How To Round Off The Corners.

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

Nature Knows No Pause In Progress And Development, And Attaches Her Curse On All Inaction.

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.

He Who Does Not Think Much Of Himself Is Much More Esteemed Than He Imagines.

When I Say To The Moment Flying; 'linger A While -- Thou Art So Fair!' Then Bind Me In Thy Bonds Undying, And My Final Ruin I Will Bear!

Only The Soul That Loves Is Happy

With Little Wit And Ease To Suit Them, They Whirl In Narrow Circling Trails, Like Kittens Playing With Their Tails.

Behavior Is The Mirror In Which Everyone Shows Their Image.

And Those Whom Once My Song Had Cheered And Gladdened, If Still They Live, Rove Through The World Now Saddened.

Idea And Experience Will Never Coincide In The Center; Only Through Art And Action Are They United.

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

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

What Matters In Art Is Not Thinking But Making.

Men Are Joined By Conviction, Sundered By Opinion.

We See Only What We Know.

It Is Always A Sign Of An Unproductive Time When It Concerns Itself With Petty And Technical Aspects [in Philology], And Likewiseit Is A Sign Of An Unproductive Person To Pursue Such Trifles.

Yet Here I Stand Poor Fool What More, Not One Wit Wiser Than Before.

The Right Man Is The One Who Seizes The Moment.

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

Good Children's Literature Appeals Not Only To The Child In The Adult, But To The Adult In The Child.

Doubt Grows With Knowledge.

Life's Objective Is Life Itself.

The One Who Acts Is Always Without Conscience; Nobody Has A Conscience But The Contemplative Person.

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

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.

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

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

Misunderstandings And Neglect Occasion More Mischief In The World Than Malice And Wickedness.

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.

The Proper Place For Liberality Is In The Realm Of The Emotions.

Give Shape, Artist! Don't Talk! Your Poem Be But A Breath.

Beloved Brother, Let Us Not Forget That Man Can Never Get Away From Himself. [ger., Lass Uns, Geliebter Bruder, Nicht Vergessen, Dass Von Sich Selbst Der Mensch Nicht Scheiden Kann.]

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

The Greatest Evil That Can Befall Man Is That He Should Come To Think Ill Of Himself.

Yet Through Delivery Orators Succeed, I Feel That I Am Far Behind Indeed.

Our Virtues And View Spring From One Root.

Words Express Neither Objects Nor Ourselves.

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.]

To The World You Might Be One Person, But To One Person, You Might Be The World. Kindness Is The Golden Chain By Which Our World Is Bound Together.

Such Is The Frailty Of Man That Even Where He Makes The Truest And Most Forcible Impression In The Memory, In The Heart Of His Beloved, There Also He Must Perish.

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

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

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

A Great Revolution Is Never The Fault Of The People, But Of The Government.

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

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.

The Day Is Committed To Error And Floundering; Success And Achievement Are Matters Of Long Range.

The Mortal Race Is Far Too Weak Not To Grow Dizzy On Unwonted Brights.

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

There Is Nothing Insignificant In The World. It All Depends On How One Looks At It.

Insignificant Things

The Connoisseur Of Art Must Be Able To Appreciate What Is Simply Beautiful, But The Common Run Of People Is Satisfied With Ornament.

The Highest Goal That Man Can Achieve Is Amazement.

What A Torment It Is To See So Much Loveliness Passing And Repassing Before Us, And Yet Not Dare To Lay Hold Of It!

Human Life-everybody Lives It, But Only To A Few Is It Known.

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.

Science Arose From Poetry... When Times Change The Two Can Meet Again On A Higher Level As Friends.

All Truths Are Old, And All That We Have To Do Is Recognize And Utter Them Anew.

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

Artists Have A Double Relationship Towards Nature: They Are Her Master And Her Slave At The Same Time. They Are Her Slave In So Far As They Must Work With Means Of This World So As To Be Understood; Her Master In So Far As They Subject These Means To Their Higher Goals And Make Them Subservient To Them.

In The End We Retain From Our Studies Only That Which We Practically Apply.

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

The Eternal Female Draws Us Onward.

So Dear Night The Half Of Life Is, And The Fairest Half Indeed.

Nothing Is True, But That Which Is Simple.

A Man Sees In The World What He Carries In His Heart.

Let No One Be Like Another, Yet Everyone Like The Highest. How Is This Done? Be Each One Perfect In Himself.

Meaning Of Life

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

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

To Act Is Easy, To Think Is Hard; To Act According To Our Thought Is Troublesome.

Look At A Man The Way He Is And He Only Becomes Worse, But Look At Him As If He Were What He Could Be, Then He Becomes What He Should Be.

Do People Conform To The Instructions Of Us Old Ones? Each Thinks He Must Know Best About Himself, And Thus Many Are Lost Entirely.

Every Step Of Life Shows Much Caution Is Required.

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

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

If We Meet Someone Who Owes Us A Debt Of Gratitude, We Remember The Fact At Once. How Often We Can Meet Someone To Whom We Owe A Debt Of Gratitude Without Thinking About It At All!

Why Should We Not Recognize In The Lightning, The Thunder, And The Storm Wind, The Approach Of An Overwhelming Power, And In The Scent Of Flowers And The Gently Rustling Zephyr The Presence Of A Being Full Of Love?

We Should Know Mankind Better If We Were Not So Anxious To Resemble One Another.

You Are, When All Is Done-just What You Are.

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

Error Is To Truth As Sleep Is To Waking. I Have Observed That One Turns, As If Refreshed, From Error Back To Truth.

All Our Knowledge Is Symbolic.

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

Mountains Cannot Be Surmounted Except By Winding Paths.

The History Of A Man Is In His Character.

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

The Best Pleasures Of This World Are Not Quite True.

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

One Mind Is Enough For A Thousand Hands.

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

He Who Cannot Love Must Learn To Flatter.

Of All Peoples The Greeks Have Dreamt The Dream Of Life Best.

Only Learn To Seize Good Fortune, For Good Fortune's Always Here.

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

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

The Biggest Problem With Every Art Is By The Use Of Appearance To Create A Loftier Reality.

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

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

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

Just Begin And The Mind Grows Heated; Continue, And The Task Will Be Completed!

Enjoy What You Can, Endure What You Must.

Habit Is A Man's Sole Comfort. We Dislike Doing Without Even Unpleasant Things To Which We Have Become Accustomed.

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

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

The Master Proves Himselin Recognizing His Limitations.

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.

Let There Be Truth Between Us.

To Act Is Easy; To Think Is Hard.

The Man Of Understanding Finds Everything Laughable.

Everyone Believes In His Youth That The World Really Began With Him, And That All Merely Exists For His Sake.

Take Care Of Your Body With Steadfast Fidelity. The Soul Must See Through These Eyes Alone, And If They Are Dim, The Whole World Is Clouded.

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

Limitation Of Aims Is The Mother Of Wisdom And The Secret Of Achievement.

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

If Ever The Divine Appeared On Earth, It Was In The Person Of Christ.

The Soul-stirring Image Of Death Is No Bugbear To The Sage, And Is Looked On Without Despair By The Pious. It Teaches The Former To Live, And It Strengthens The Hopes Of The Latter In Salvation In The Midst Of Distress. Death Is New Life To Both.

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

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

All Beginnings Are Delightful; The Threshold Is The Place To Pause.

No Prudent Antagonist Thinks Light Of His Adversaries.

One Never Goes So Far As When One Doesn't Know Where One Is Going.

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.

To Accept Good Advice Is But To Increase One's Own Ability.

He Who Has A Task To Perform Must Know How To Take Sides, Or He Is Quite Unworthy Of It.

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

Wealth And Speed Are What The World Admires, What Each Pursues. Railways, Express Mails, Steamships And Every Possible Facility For Communications Are The Achievement In Which The Civilized World View And Revels, Only To Languish In Mediocrity By That Very Fact. Indeed, The Effect Of This Diffusion Is To Spread The Culture Of The Mediocre.

The Longer I Live, The More It Grieves Me To See Man, Who Occupies His Supreme Place For The Very Purpose Of Imposing His Will Upon Nature, And Freeing Himself And His From An Outrageous Necessity--to See Him Taken Up With Some False Notion, And Doing Just The Opposite Of What He Wants To Do; And Then, Because The Whole Bent Of His Mind Is Spoilt, Bungling Miserably Over Everything.

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

I Laugh At My Heart, And Do Its Will

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

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

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

We Are Forced To Participate In The Games Of Life Before We Can Possibly Learn How To Use The Options In The Rules Governing Them.

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

Blood Is A Very Special Juice.

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.

It Is Not Enough To Take Steps Which May Someday Lead To A Goal; Each Step Must Be Itself A Goal And A Step Likewise.

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

Microscopes And Telescopes Really Confuse Our Minds.

Enjoy What Thou Has Inherited From Thy Sires If Thou Wouldn't Really Possess It. What We Employ And Use Is Never An Oppressive Burden; What The Moment Brings Forth, That Only Can It Profit By.

After All, Poets Shouldn't Be Their Own Interpreters And Shouldn't Carefully Dissect Their Poems Into Everyday Prose; That Would Mean The End Of Being Poets. Poets Send Their Creations Into The World, It Is Up To The Reader, The Aesthetician, And The Critic To Determine What They Wanted To Say With Their Creations.

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

No One As Ever Completed Their Apprenticeship.

Literature Is A Fragment Of A Fragment. Of All That Ever Happened, Or Has Been Said, But A Fraction Has Been Written; And Of This But Little Is Extant.

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

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

A Genuine Work Of Art Usually Displeases At First Sight, As It Suggests A Deficiency In The Spectator.

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.

My Peace Is Gone, My Heart Is Heavy. [ger., Meine Ruh Ist Hin, Mein Herz Ist Schwer.]

What Is Fruitful Alone Is True.

If The Whole World I Once Could See On Free Soil Stand, With The People Free Then To The Moment Might I Say, Linger Awhile. . .so Fair Thou Art.

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

On The Pinnacle Of Success Man Does Not Stand Firm Long.

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

A Human Being Needs Only A Small Plot Of Ground On Which To Be Happy, And Even Less To Lie Beneath.

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

Who Is The Happiest Man? He Who Is Alive To The Merit Of Others, And Can Rejoice In Their Enjoyment As If It Were His Own.

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.

We Are Our Own Aptest Deceiver.

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

Being Brilliant Is No Great Feat If You Respect Nothing.

That Which Is Eternal In Woman Lifts Us Above.

Reality Surpasses Imagination; And We See, Breathing, Brightening, And Moving Before Our Eyes Sights Dearer To Our Hearts Than Any We Ever Beheld In The Land Of Sleep.

Reasonable Men Are The Best Dictionaries Of Conversation.

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.

It Is A Maxim Of Wise Government To Treat People Not As They Should Be But As They Actually Are.

Die Mathematiker Sind Eine Art Franzosen. Spricht Man Zu Ihnen, So übersetzen Sie Alles In Ihre Eigene Sprache, Und So Wird Es Alsobald Etwas Ganz Anderes. Mathematicians Are A Kind Of Frenchmen. Whenever You Say Anything Or Talk To Them, They Translate It Into Their Own Language, And Right Away It Is Something Completely Different.

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

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

Do Not Hurry; Do Not Rest.

The Assault Of Our Enemies Is Not Part Of Our Life; It Is Only Part Of Our Experience; We Throw It Off And Guard Ourselves Against It As Against Frost, Storm, Rain, Hail, Or Any Other Of The External Evils Which May Be Expected To Happen.

Nature Has Neither Kernel Nor Shell

Nature! We Are Surrounded By Her And Locked In Her Clasp: Powerless To Leave Her, And Powerless To Come Closer To Her. Unasked And Unwarned She Takes Us Up Into The Whirl Of Her Dance, And Hurries On With Us Till We Are Weary And Fall From Her Arms.

A King There Was Once Reigning, Who Had A Goodly Flea, Him Loved He Without Feigning, As His Own Son Were He!

It Seems To Never Occur To Fools That Merit And Good Fortune Are Closely United.

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

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.

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

Wood Burns Because It Has The Proper Stuff For That Purpose In It; And A Man Becomes Renowned Because He Has The Necessary Stuff In Him. Renown Is Not To Be Sought, And All Pursuit Of It Is Vain. A Person May, Indeed, By Skillful Conduct And Various Artificial Means, Make A Sort Of Name For Himself; But If The Inner Jewel Is Wanting, All Is Vanity, And Will Not Last A Day.

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

Talent Is Nurtured In Solitude; Character Is Formed In The Stormy Billows Of The World.

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!

What Right Those Who Govern Have To Govern They Don't Question, They Just Govern. Whether The People Have A Right To Depose Them That Doesn't Concern Them. All They Are Concerned With Is That The People Will Not Be Tempted To Depose Them.

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.

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.

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

I Curse All Negative Purism That Tells Me Not To Use A Word From Another Language That Either Expresses Something That My Own Language Cannot Or Does That In A More Delicate Manner.

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

It Is Commonly The Personal Character Of A Writer Which Gives Him His Public Significance. It Is Not Imparted By His Genius. Napoleon Said Of Corneille, "were He Living I Would Make Him A King;" But He Did Not Read Him. He Read Racine, Yet He Said Nothing Of The Kind Of Racine.

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