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Whoever Strenuously Endeavors, Him We Can Rescue.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Whoever Strenuously Endeavors, Him

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Whoever Strenuously Endeavors, Him We Can Rescue.

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

Superstition Is The Poetry Of Life.

Secrecy Has Many Advantages, For When You Tell Someone The Purpose Of Any Object Right Away, They Often Think There Is Nothing To It.

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

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.

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

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.]

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.

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

There Is Nothing By Which Men Display Their Character So Much As In What They Consider Ridiculous... Fools And Sensible Men Are Equally Innocuous. It Is In The Half Fools And The Half Wise That The Great Danger Lies.

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

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.

All Is Born Of Water; All Is Sustained By Water.

It Is As Certain As It Is Strange That Truth And Error Come From One And The Same Source. Thus It Is That We Are Often Not At Liberty To Do Violence To Error, Because At The Same Time We Do Violence To Truth.

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

He Who Possesses Science And Art, Possesses Religion As Well; He Who Possesses Neither Of These, Had Better Have Religion.

Science And Religion

I Wish The Crowd To Feel Itself Well Treated, Especially Since It Lives And Lets Me Live.

Love And Desire Are The Spirit's Wings To Great Deeds.

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

The History Of Knowledge Is A Great Fugue In Which The Voices Of The Nations One After The Other Emerge.

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

Experiments Are Mediators Between Nature And Idea.

We Are The Slaves Of Objects Around Us, And Appear Little Or Important According As These Contract Or Give Us Room To Expand.

What Is Hardest Of All? That Which Seems Most Simple: To See With Your Eyes What Is Before Your Eyes.

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

Man Errs, Till He Has Ceased To Strive.

By Seeking And Blundering We Learn.

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

I Have Possessed That Heart, That Noble Soul, In Whose Presence I Seemed To Be More Than I Really Was, Because I Was All That I Could Be.

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

The Eternal Female Draws Us Onward.

Just As, Out Of Habit, One Consults A Run-down Clock As Though It Were Still Going, So Too One May Look At The Face Of A Beautiful Woman As Though He Still Loved Her.

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

One's Roused By This, Another Finds That Fit: Each Loves The Play For What He Brings To It.

The Rogue Has Everywhere The Advantage.

Die Zeit Ist Selbst Ein Element. Time Is Itself An Element.

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

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

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.

Wouldst Thou Ever Roam Abroad? See, What Is Good Lies By Thy Side. Only Learn To Catch Happiness, For Happiness Is Ever By You.

To Have A Positive Religion Is Not Necessary. To Be In Harmony With Yourself And The Universe Is What Counts, And This Is Possible Without Positive And Specific Formulation In Words.

What Do People Mean When They Talk About Unhappiness? It Is Not So Much Unhappiness As Impatience That From Time To Time Possesses Men, And Then They Choose To Call Themselves Miserable.

The First And Last Thing Required Of Genius Is The Love Of Truth. [ger., Das Erste Und Letzte, Was Vom Genie Gefordert Wird, Ist Wahreits-liebe.]

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

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

Our Foibles Are Really What Make Us Lovable.

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

The Older We Get The More We Must Limit Ourselves If We Wish To Be Active.

The Beginning Of Faith Is The Beginning Of Fruitfulness; But The Beginning Of Unbelief, However Glittering, Is Empty.

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

Those Only Obtain Love, For The Most Part, Who Seek It Not.

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.

Every Form Correctly Seen Is Beautiful

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

Hope Enough To Remove All Anxious Fears Concerning The Future.

He Is A Man Whom It Is Impossible To Please, Because He Is Never Pleased With Himself.

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

Who Enslaves Another's Manhood With Weak Human Power Alone, Lays A Heavier Yoke Of Bondage Thoughtlessly Upon His Own.

Man Is Made By His Belief. As He Believes, So He Is.

When Ideas Fail, Words Come In Very Handy.

Of The Book Of Books Most Wondrous Is The Tender Book Of Love.

Once I Blazed Across The Sky, Leaving Trails Of Flame; I Fell To Earth, And Here I Lie - Who'll Help Me Up Again? -a Shooting Star

There Speaks The Man Of Truly Noble Ways, Who Will Not Listen To The Words Of Praise. In Modesty Averse, And With Deaf Ears, He Acts As Though The Others Were His Peers.

Passions Are Vices Or Virtues To Their Highest Powers.

Everything Transitory Is But An Image.

What We Do Not Understand We Do Not Possess.

Light Has Called Forth One Organ To Become Its Like, And Thus The Eye Is Formed By The Light And For The Light So That The Inner Light May Emerge To Meet The Outer Light.

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

Traveling Is Like Gambling: It Is Always Connected With Winning And Losing And Generally Where It Is Least Expected We Receive, More Or Less Than What We Hoped For.

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

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

Woe To Falsehood! It Affords No Relief To The Breast, Like Truth; It Gives Us No Comfort, Pains Him Who Forges It, And Like An Arrow Directed By A God Flies Back And Wounds The Archer.

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

A Good Person, Striving Dimly, Is Well Aware Of The Right Path.

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

Sing It Not In Mournful Numbers.

Publishers Are All Cohorts Of The Devil; There Must Be A Special Hell For Them Somewhere.

Woe To Him Who Would Ascribe Something Like Reason To Chance, And Make A Religion Of Surrendering To It.

We Must Be Young To Do Great Things.

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

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

The Bed Of Flowers Loosens Amain, The Beauteous Snowdrops Droop O'er The Plain. The Crocus Opens Its Glowing Bud, Like Emeralds Others, Others, Like Blood. With Saucy Gesture Primroses Flare, And Roguish Violets, Hidden With Care; And Whatsoever There Stirs And Strives, The Spring's Contented, If Works And Thrives.

The Summit Charms Us, The Steps To It Do Not; With The Heights Before Our Eyes, We Like To Linger In The Plain. It Is Only A Part Of Art That Can Be Taught; But The Artist Needs The Whole. He Who Is Only Half Instructed Speaks Much And Is Always Wrong; Who Knows It Wholly Is Content With Acting And Speaks Seldom Or Late.

Plunge Boldly Into The Thick Of Life!

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.

Misunderstandings And Neglect Create More Confusion In This World Than Trickery And Malice. At Any Rate, The Last Two Are Certainly Much Less Frequent.

Art Is A Mediator Of The Unspeakable.

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.

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

Everything Which Is Properly Business We Must Keep Carefully Separate From Life. Business Requires Earnestness And Method; Life Must Have A Freed Handling.

In All Things, To Serve From The Lowest Station Upwards Is Necessary. To Restrict Yourself To A Trade Is Best. For The Narrow Mind, Whatever He Attempts Is Still A Trade; For The Higher, An Art; And The Highest In Doing One Thing Does All, Or, To Speak Less Paradoxically, In The One Thing Which He Does Rightly He Sees The Likeness Of All That Is Done Rightly.

God Could Cause Us Considerable Embarrassment By Revealing All The Secrets Of Nature To Us: We Should Not Know What To Do For Sheer Apathy And Boredom.

Keeping Secrets

Ill-humor Is Nothing More Than An Inward Feeling Of Our Own Want Of Merit, A Dissatisfaction With Ourselves Which Is Always United With An Envy That Foolish Vanity Excites.

People Are So Constituted That Everybody Would Rather Undertake What They See Others Do, Whether They Have An Aptitude For It Or Not.

The Greatest Thing In This World Is Not So Much Where We Stand As In What Direction We Are Moving.

Mathematics Has The Completely False Reputation Of Yielding Infallible Conclusions. Its Infallibility Is Nothing But Identity. Two Times Two Is Not Four, But It Is Just Two Times Two, And That Is What We Call Four For Short. But Four Is Nothing New At All. And Thus It Goes On And On In Its Conclusions, Except That In The Higher Formulas The Identity Fades Out Of Sight.

One Spares Old People Just As One Spares Children.

A Man's Shortcomings Are Taken From His Epoch; His Virtues And Greatness Belong To Himself.

Religion Is Not In Want Of Art; It Rests On Its Own Majesty.

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

A Mathematician Is Only Perfect Insofar As He Is A Perfect Man, Sensitive To The Beauty Of Truth.

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

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

What Life Half Gives A Man, Posterity Gives Entirely.

One Always Has Time Enough, If One Will Apply It Well.

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

Conscience Is The Virtue Of The Observers Not The Agents Of Action

There Is No Way To Face The Great Advantages Of Another Person Than Through Love.

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

I Will Be Lord Over Myself.

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

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

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

Impotent Hatred Is The Most Horrible Of All Emotions; One Should Hate Nobody Whom One Cannot Destroy.

As A Man Is, So Is His God; Therefore God Was So Often An Object Of Mockery. [ger., Wie Einer Ist, So Ist Sein Gott, Darum Ward Gott So Oft Zu Spott.]

Association With Women Is The Basis Of Good Manners.

Merely To Breathe Freely Does Not Mean To Live.

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

Distrust Those In Whom The Desire To Punish Is Strong.

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

The People Who Are Absent Are The Ideal; Those Who Are Present Seem To Be Quite Commonplace.

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

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

No Two People See The World Exactly Alike, And Different Temperaments Will Often Apply The Same Principle, Recognized By Both, Differently. Even One And The Same Person Won't Always Maintain The Same Views And Judgments: Earlier Convictions Must Give Way To Later Ones.

Nothing Puts Me So Completely Out Of Patience As The Utterance Of A Wretched Commonplace When I Am Talking From My Inmost Heart.

I Can Promise To Be Upright, But Not To Be Without Bias. [ger., Aufrichtig Zu Sein Kann Ich Versprechen; Unparteiisch Zu Sein Aber Nicht.]

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.

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

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

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

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

If Everyone Sweeps Before His Own Front Door, Then The Street Is Clean.

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.

The Bible Grows More Beautiful, As We Grow In Our Understanding Of It.

Profoundness, Genius, Spontaneity, Merit, Nobility, Ingenuity, Voice Propriety, Feeling, Discernment, Sensibility, Good Taste, Great Tone, Rightness, Courtliness, Vivacity, Boldness, Style, Freshness, Harmony, Perfection, Imagination, Purity, Correctness. The Greatest Writer Of All Times. God's Most Astonishing Creation.

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

Beauty Is At Once The Ultimate Principle And The Highest Aim Of Art.

Rest Not. Life Is Sweeping By; Go And Dare Before You Die. Something Mighty And Sublime, Leave Behind To Conquer Time.

There Are Only Two Lasting Bequests We Can Hope To Give Our Children. One Of These Is Roots, The Other, Wings.

Nothing Is More Fearful Than Imagination Without Taste.

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

One Must Keep Repeating The Truth.

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

The Highest Goal That Man Can Achieve Is Amazement.

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

Daily Life Is More Instructive Than The Most Effective Book.

Behavior Is The Mirror In Which Everyone Shows Their Image.

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

Mysteries Are Not Necessarily Miracles.

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.

No, No! The Devil Is An Egotist, And Is Not Apt, Without Why Or Wherefore, "for God's Sake," Others To Assist. [ger., Nein, Nein! Der Teufel Ist Ein Egoist Und Thut Nicht Leicht Um Gottes Willen, Was Einem Andern Nutzlich Ist.]

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.

As Soon As You Are In A Social Setting, You Better Take Away The Key To The Lock Of Your Heart And Pocket It; Those Who Leave Thekey In The Lock Are Fools.

To Like Things Like, Whatever One May Ail; There Is Certain Help.

In Art, The Best Is Good Enough.

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

Let There Be Truth Between Us.

No One Is Willing To Believe That Adults Too, Like Children, Wander About This Earth In A Daze And, Like Children, Do Not Know Where They Come From Or Where They Are Going, Act As Rarely As They Do According To Genuine Motives, And Are As Thoroughly Governed As They Are By Biscuits And Cake And The Rod.

Not All That Is Presented To Us As History Has Really Happened; And What Really Happened Did Not Actually Happen The Way It Is Presented To Us; Moreover, What Really Happened Is Only A Small Part Of All That Happened. Everything In History Remains Uncertain, The Largest Events As Well As The Smallest Occurrence.

The Most Happy Man Is He Who Knows How To Bring Into Relation The End And Beginning Of His Life.

Every Bird Has Its Decoy, And Every Man Is Led And Misled In His Own Peculiar Way.

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

Say What We May Of The Inadequacy Of Translation, Yet The Work Is And Will Always Be One Of The Weightiest And Worthiest Undertakings In The General Concerns Of The World.

Painting And Tattooing The Body Is A Return To Animalism.

Go To Foreign Countries And You Will Get To Know The Good Things One Possesses At Home.

It Is Not Always Needful For Truth To Take A Definite Shape; It Is Enough If It Hovers About Us Like A Spirit And Produces Harmony; If It Is Wafted Through The Air Like The Sound Of A Bell, Grave And Kindly.

Let No One Be Ashamed To Say Yes Today If Yesterday He Said No. Or To Say No Today If Yesterday He Said Yes. For That Is Life. Never To Have Changed-what A Pitiable Thing Of Which To Boast!

Every Offense Is Avenged On Earth.

It Is Not Given To Us To Grasp The Truth, Which Is Identical With The Divine, Directly. We Perceive It Only In Reflection, In Example And Symbol, In Singular And Related Appearances. It Meets Us As A Kind Of Life Which Is Incomprehensible To Us, And Yet We Cannot Free Ourselves From The Desire To Comprehend It.

A State Of Affairs Which Leads To Daily Vexation Is Not The Right State.

Our Friends Show Us What We Can Do; Our Enemies Teach Us What We Must Do.

The Unnatural, That Too Is Natural.

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

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

Whoever Would Understand The Poet Must Go Into The Poet's Country. [ger., Wer Den Dichter Will Verstehen Muss In Dichters Lande Gehen.]

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.

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

To A Valet No Man Is A Hero. [ger., Es Gibt Fur Den Kammerdiener Keiner Helden.]

The Highest Happiness, The Purest Joys Of Life, Wear Out At Last.

Freedom Consists Not In Refusing To Recognize Anything Above Us, But In Respecting Something Which Is Above Us; For By Respecting It, We Raise Ourselves To It, And, By Our Very Acknowledgment, Prove That We Bear Within Ourselves What Is Higher, And Are Worthy To Be On A Level With It.

No Man Learns To Know His Inmost Nature By Introspection, For He Rates Himself Sometimes Too Low, And Often Too High, By His Own Measurement. Man Knows Himself Only By Comparing Himself With Other Men; It Is Life That Touches His Genuine Worth.

The Artist Alone Sees Spirits. But After He Has Told Of Their Appearing To Him, Everybody Sees Them.

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

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

Every Idea Appears At First As A Strange Visitor, And When It Begins To Be Realized, It Is Hardly Distinguishable From Fantasy.

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

Too Rigid Scruples Are Concealed Pride.

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

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

Knowing Is Not Enough; We Must Apply. Willing Is Not Enough; We Must Do.

One Lives But Once In The World.

Begin By Instructing Yourself, Then You Will Receive Instruction From Others.

Everything Is Simpler Than You Think And At The Same Time More Complex Than You Imagine

The Desire To Explain What Is Simple By What Is Complex, What Is Easy By What Is Difficult, Is A Calamity.

Common Sense Is The Genius Of Humanity.

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.]

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

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

A Man Doesn't Learn To Understand Anything Unless He Loves It.

We Don't Get To Know Anything But What We Love.

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