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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German literary giant and towering figure of the Romantic era, captivated readers with his timeless poetry and profound insights into the human condition. From his epic masterpiece "Faust" to his poignant lyric poetry and insightful essays, his writings continue to resonate with readers across cultures and generations.
"In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance."
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"Man needs only a small patch of earth for his pleasures, and a smaller one still to rest beneath."
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"Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life."
"Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done."
"Here too it's masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind.I grasped a lovely masked procession,And caught things from a horror show, I'd gladly settle for a false impression,If it would last a little longer, though."
"The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection."
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"If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own."
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"Insofar as he makes use of his healthy senses, man himself is the best and most exact scientific instrument possible. The greatest misfortune of modern physics is that its experiments have been set apart from man, as it were, physics refuses to recognize nature in anything not shown by artificial instruments, and even uses this as a measure of its accomplishments."
"The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honour or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool."
"Literature decays only as men become more and more corrupt."
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"Moreover I hate everything which merely instructs me without increasing or directly quickening my activity."
"He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines."
"Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do."
"If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different."
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"Only air and light and the love of friends! Let no man lose heart who still has these."
"We look back on our life as a thing of broken pieces, because our mistakes and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have accomplished and attained."
"I think of you when upon the sea the sun flings her beams. I think of you when the moonlight shines in silvery streams. I see you when upon the distant hills the dust awakes; At night when on a fragile bridge the traveler quakes.I hear you when the blows rise on high, with murmur deep. To tread the silent grove where wander I, When all's asleep."
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"I possess so much, but my love for her absorbs it all. I possess so much, but without her I have nothing."
"Knowing is not enough we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do."