Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832 / Frankfurt am Main

Rhymed Distichs

WHO trusts in God,
Fears not His rod.
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THIS truth may be by all believed:
Whom God deceives, is well deceived.
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HOW? when? and where?-No answer comes from high;
Thou wait'st for the Because, and yet thou ask'st not Why?
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IF the whole is ever to gladden thee,
That whole in the smallest thing thou must see.
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WATER its living strength first shows,
When obstacles its course oppose.
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TRANSPARENT appears the radiant air,
Though steel and stone in its breast it may bear;
At length they'll meet with fiery power,
And metal and stones on the earth will shower.
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WHATE'ER a living flame may surround,
No longer is shapeless, or earthly bound.
'Tis now invisible, flies from earth,
And hastens on high to the place of its birth.
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