Envy Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

9 Envy quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All Envy quotes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s page

Goethe’s reflections on envy surface in nine concise quotations, each probing the human heart with literary finesse. This short set offers a taste of his timeless insight into desire.

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Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill will and envy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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What a day it is when we must envy the men in their graves.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Ill-humor is nothing more than an inward feeling of our own want of merit, a dissatisfaction with ourselves which is always united…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The Primal Plant is going be the strangest creature in the world, which Nature herself must envy me. With this model and…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Is it not enough that we cannot make one another happy, must we also rob one another of the pleasures that any…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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“You were happy!” I exclaimed, as I returned quickly to the town, “‘as gay and contented as a man can be!’” God…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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More by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Our foibles are really what make us lovable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Giving is the business of the rich.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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I look upon all four Gospels as thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity proceeding from Jesus…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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