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Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Kindness

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.

Maxims and Reflections (1833)

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

Elective Affinities (1809)

I had rather be Mercury, the smallest among seven [planets], revolving round the sun, than the first among five [moons] revolving round Saturn.

Of freedom and of life he only is deserving
Who every day must conquer them anew.

Faust, Part 2 (1832)

Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.

All Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes →

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Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

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A daughter who respects you while you’re alive is far better than a son who performs the rites and rituals after you’re gone.

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O proud philanthropist, your hope is vain
To get by giving what you lost by gain.

Ambrose Bierce

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.