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
It would be a lowly art that allowed itself to be understood all at once.
The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.
Those that are firm in their will mold the world to themselves.
Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.
Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion
Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.
One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going.
Plunge boldly into the thick of life!
Where the light is brightest, the shadows are deepest.
Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.
Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
From inaccessible mountain range by way of desert untrod by human foot to the ends of the unknown seas, the breath of the everlasting creative spirit is felt, rejoicing over every speck of dust that hearkens to it and lives.
Nature is beneficent. I praise her and all her works. She is silent and wise. She is cunning, but for good ends. She has brought me here and will also lead me away. She may scold me, but she will not hate her work. I trust her.
Oh how sweet it is to hear one's own convictions from another's lips.