Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann WolfgangGoethetə/; German: ; 28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth28 August 1749
CountryGermany
A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.
Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.
There is but one poetry,--true poetry.
The trouble is small, the fun is great. [Ger., Die Muh'ist klein, der Spass ist gross.]
Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky. [Ger., Es ist dafur gesorgt, dass die Baume nicht in den Himmel wachsen.]
The smallest hair throws its shadow. [Ger., Das kleinste Harr wirft seinen Schatten.]
The present is a powerful deity. [Ger., Die Gegenwart ist eine machtige Gottin.]
My inheritance how lordly wide and fair; Time is my fair seed-field, to Time I'm heir.
Who can think wise or stupid things at all that were not thought already in the past. [Ger., Wer kann was Dummes, wer was Kluges denken, Das nicht die Vorwelt schon gedacht.]
There are few who have at once thought and capacity for action. Thought expands, but lames; action animates, but narrows.
At the end of life thoughts hitherto impossible come to the collected mind, like good spirits which let themselves down from the shining heights of the past.
Go to the place where the thing you wish to know is native; your best teacher is there. Where the thing you wish to know is so dominant that you must breathe its very atmosphere, there teaching is moat thorough, and learning is most easy. You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy boat among miners; and so with everything else.
Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man's nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.
Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious.