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People say, “Artist, study nature!” But it is no small matter to develop what is noble out of what is common, beauty out of what lacks form.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Maxims and Reflections (1833)

Man sagt: „Studire, Künstler, die Natur!” Es ist aber keine Kleinigkeit, aus dem Gemeinen das Edle, aus der Unform das Schöne zu entwickeln.

Original text (German)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Maxim 191, trans. Stopp

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Beauty

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.

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Of freedom and of life he only is deserving
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Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.

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Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
The eyes of men without an orator.

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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.