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
When young, one is confident to be able to build palaces for mankind, but when the time comes one has one's hands full just to be able to remove their trash.
Every need whose true satisfaction is denied leads by necessity to faith.
It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.
The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
It is delightful to transport one's self into the spirit of the past, to see how a wise man has thought before us
What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.
We can offer up much in the large, but to make sacrifices in little things is what we are seldom equal to.
When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
A person hears only what they understand.
The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.
How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.