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There is nothing more frightful than an active ignorance.
[Ger., Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine thatige
Unwissenheit.]
Topic: Ignorance
Source: Spruche in Prosa (III)
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If you start to think about your physical or moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
Topic: Illness
Source: None
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There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste.
[Ger., Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne
Geschmack.]
Topic: Imagination
Source: Spruche in Prosa (III)
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Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Topic: Importance
Source: None
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Then indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.
Topic: Indecision
Source: None
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A good man, through obscurest aspirations
Has still an instinct of the one true way.
[Ger., Ein guter Mensch, in seinem dunkeln Drange,
Ist sich des rechten Weges sohl bewusst.]
Topic: Instinct
Source: Faust--Prolog in Himmel--Der Herr (l. 88)
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No sacred fane requires us to submit to insult.
[Ger., Kein Heiligthum heisst uns den Schimpf ertragen.]
Topic: Insult
Source: Torquato Tasso (III, 3, 191)
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Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.
Topic: Language
Source: None
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Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
Topic: Laughter
Source: None
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In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.
Topic: Learning
Source: None
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Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
Topic: Letters
Source: None
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More light!
[Ger., Mehr Licht!]
Topic: Light
Source: said to be his last words
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Where there is much light, the shadows are deepest.
[Ger., Wo viel Licht is, ist starker Schatten.]
Topic: Light
Source: Gotz von Berlichingen (I, 24)
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To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.
Topic: Limitations
Source: None
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He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
[Ger., Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner
eigenen.]
Topic: Linguists
Source: Kunst und Alterthum
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The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.
Topic: Literature
Source: None
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We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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When I err every one can see it, but not when I lie.
[Ger., Wenn ich irre kann es jeder bemerken; wenn ich luge,
nicht.]
Topic: Lying
Source: Spruche in Prosa (III)
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Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures
To restless action spurs our fate!
Cursed when for soft, indulgent leisures,
He lays for us the pillows straight.
Topic: Mammon
Source: Faust
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The society of women is the element of good manners.
Topic: Manners
Source: None
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Nature goes her own way and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
Topic: Nature
Source: None
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A noble soul alone can noble souls attract;
And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
[Ger., Ein edler Mensch zieht edle Menschen an,
Und weiss sie fest zu halten, wie ihr thut.]
Topic: Nobility
Source: Torquato Tasso (I, 1, 59)
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It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
Topic: Obligation
Source: None
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The sea is flowing ever,
The land retains it never.
Topic: Ocean
Source: Hikmet Nameh--Book of Proverbs
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Yet he who grasps the moment's gift,
He is the proper man.
[Ger., Der den Augenblick ergreift,
Das ist der rechte Mann.]
Topic: Opportunity
Source: Faust (I, 4, 494)
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Yet through delivery orators succeed,
I feel that I am far behind indeed.
[Ger., Allein der Vortrag macht des Redners Gluck,
Ich fuhl es wohl noch bin ich weit zuruck.]
Topic: Oratory
Source: Faust (I, 1, 194)
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With little art, clear wit and sense
Suggest their own delivery.
[Ger., Es tragt Verstand und rechter Sinn,
Mit wenig Kunst sich selber vor.]
Topic: Oratory
Source: Faust (I, 1, 198)
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All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.
Topic: Originality
Source: None
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Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Topic: Please title this page. (mercy.html)
Source: None
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It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.
Topic: Poetry
Source: None
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For what one has in black and white,
One can carry home in comfort.
[Ger., Denn was man schwarz auf weiss besitzt,
Kann man getrost nach Hause tragen.]
Topic: Possession
Source: Faust (I, 4, 42)
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What we do not understand we do not possess.
Topic: Possessions
Source: None
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What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit;
What's genuine, shall posterity inherit.
[Ger., Was glanzt ist fur den Augenblick geboren;
Das Aechte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren.]
Topic: Posterity
Source: Faust--Vorspiel auf dem Theater (l. 41)
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Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him!
[Ger., Du bist noch nicht der Mann den Teufel festzuhalten.]
Topic: Power
Source: Faust (I, 3, 336)
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Power is neither male nor female.
Topic: Power
Source: Faust (I, 3, 336)
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Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.
[Ger., Zu strenge Ford'rung ist verborgner Stolz.]
Topic: Pride
Source: Iphigenia auf Tauris (IV, 4, 120)
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He who moves not forward goes backward!
A capital saying!
Topic: Progress
Source: Hermann and Dorothea (canto III, l. 66)
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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.]
Topic: Prosperity
Source: Spruche in Reimen (III)
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What is not in a man cannot come out of him surely.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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E'en his failings leaned to virtue's side.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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Chill penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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We frolic while 'tis May.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know,
And from her own she learnt to melt at others' woe.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Herman and Dorothea (canto III, l. 3)
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He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds
his feet uncovered.
[Ger., Wer sich nicht nach der Decke streckt,
Dem bleiben die Fusse unbedeckt.]
Topic: Prudence
Source: Spruche In Reimen (III)
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I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated,
Especially since it lives and lets me live.
[Ger., Ich wunschte sehr, der Menge zu behagen,
Besonders weil sie lebt und leben lasst.]
Topic: Public
Source: Faust Vorspiel auf dem Theater (l. 5)
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He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to
death and no one thanks him for it.
[Ger., Wer dem Publicum dient, ist ein armes Thier;
Er qualt sich ab, niemand bedankt sich dafur.]
Topic: Public
Source: Spruche in Reimen (III)
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The sagacious reader who is capable of reading between these
lines what does not stand written in them, but is nevertheless
implied, will be able to form some conception.
Topic: Reading
Source: Autobiography (bk. XVIII, Truth and Beauty)
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What they're accustomed to is no great matter,
But then, alas! they've read an awful deal.
[Ger., Zwar sind sie an das Beste nicht gewohnt,
Allein sie haben schrecklich viel gelesen.]
Topic: Reading
Source: Faust--Vorspiel auf dem Theater (l. 13), (Bayard Taylor's translation)
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