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
Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.
A useless life is an early death. [Ger., Ein unnutz Leben ist ein fruher Tod.]
Look at a man the way he is and he only becomes worse, but look at him as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be.
As our inclinations, so our opinions.
True happiness springs from moderation.
Wisdom is found only in truth.
To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
Nothing is more disgusting than the majority: because it consists of a few powerful predecessors, of rogues who adapt themselves, of weak who assimilate themselves, and the masses who imitate without knowing at all what they want.
Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.
One is never deceived; one deceives oneself.