Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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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.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Sorrows of Young Werther

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of Young Werther]. Leipzig: Weygand'sche Buchhandlung, 1774.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "The Sorrows of Young Werther." The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings, translated by Catherin Hutter. Signet, 2013.

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Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Torquato Tasso. Leipzig, 1790, act 1, sc. 1.

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Noble be man,
Helpful and good!
For that alone
Sets him apart
From every other creature
On earth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Quoted in "Das Gottliche [The Divine]." Uber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen ad den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn [On the Teachings of Spinoza in Letters to Moses Mendelssohn], written by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. Breslau: Gottlieb Lowe, 1785, pp. 2-4.

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Current Citation

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "The Godlike." The Essential Goethe, edited and translated by Matthew Bell. Princeton University Press, 2018.

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And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand! no wiser than before.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust. Eine Tragödie [Faust: A Tragedy]. Tübingen: J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1808.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust, Part One, edited by David Luke. Oxford University Press, 2008.

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I love those who yearn for the impossible.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil [Faust. The Tragedy's Second Part]. 1832, act 2.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust: Part Two, translated by David Luke. Oxford University Press, 2008, act 2.

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One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship]. Berlin: Johann Friedrich Unger, 1785-1786, bk. 5, ch. 1.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." Goethe: The Collected Works, edited and translated by Eric A. Blackall. Vol. 9, Princeton University Press, 1995, bk. 5, ch. 1.

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A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows on rows of natural objects, classified with name and form.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Elective Affinities

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Die Wahlvenwandtschaften [Elective Affinities]. Tubingen: J. G. Cottaische Buchhandlung, 1809, bk. 2, ch. 7.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Elective Affinities, translated by David Constantine. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 2, ch. 7.

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Just trust yourself and you'll learn the art of living.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Studiezimmer [Study Room]." Faust. Eine Tragödie [Faust: A Tragedy]. Tübingen: J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1808.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Study Room." Faust, Part One, edited by David Luke. Oxford University Press, 2008.

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Only the soul that loves is happy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Clarchens Lied [Clara's Song]." Egmont. Leipzig: Georg Joachim Göschen, 1788, act 3, sc. 2.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Egmont: A Tragedy, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1985, act 3, sc. 2.

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Superstition is the poetry of life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Own and Assimilated Material." Über Kunst und Altertum [On Art and Antiquity]. 1823, vol. 4, issue 2.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "From Art and Antiquity: Vol IV, Issue 2: Own and Assimilated Material (1823)." Maxims and Reflections, edited by Peter Hutchinson, translated by Elisabeth Stopp. Penguin Classics, 1999.

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He who does not know foreign languages knows nothing of his own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Ueber Kunst und Altersthum [From Art and Antiquity]. 1821, vol. 3, issue 1.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Maxims and Reflections, translated by Elizabeth Stopp, edited by Peter Hutchinson. Penguin Books, 2005.

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Let no one think that he can conquer the first impressions of his youth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship]. Berlin: Johann Friedrich Unger, 1785-1786, bk. 2, ch. 9.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." Goethe: The Collected Works, edited and translated by Eric A. Blackall. Vol. 9, Princeton University Press, 1995, bk. 2, ch. 9.

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Must it ever be thus-that the source of our happiness must also be the fountain of our misery? The full and ardent sentiment which animated my heart with the love of nature, overwhelming me with a torrent of delight, and which brought all paradise before me, has now become an insupportable torment, a demon which perpetually pursues and harrasses me.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Sorrows of Young Werther

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of Young Werther]. Leipzig: Weygand'sche Buchhandlung, 1774.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "The Sorrows of Young Werther." The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings, translated by Catherin Hutter. Signet, 2013.

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The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Sorrows of Young Werther

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of Young Werther]. Leipzig: Weygand'sche Buchhandlung, 1774.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "The Sorrows of Young Werther." The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings, translated by Catherin Hutter. Signet, 2013.

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There are few things of greater advantage than learning to appreciate the strong points of your opponents.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Maxim no. 396. c. 1832.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Maxims and Reflections, translated by Elizabeth Stopp, edited by Peter Hutchinson. Penguin Books, 2005, no. 396.

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I by no means owe my works to my own wisdom alone, but to a thousand things and persons around me, who provided me with material.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Original Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Conversion with Eckermann and Soret. c. 1832.

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Current Citation

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Conversations of Goethe with Eickermann and Soret, translated by John Oxenford. Da Capo Press, 1998.

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