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
Mastery is often taken for egotism.
Culture which smooth the whole world licks, Also unto the devil sticks.
Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny
Still this planet's soil for noble deeds grants scope abounding.
We are our own aptest deceiver.
I hate all explanations; they who make them deceive either themselves or the other party,-generally both.
The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks
The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
As all Nature's thousands changes But one changeless God proclaim; So in Art's wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene through time and season Stands aye in loveliness.
A vain man can never be utterly ruthless: he wants to win applause and therefore he accommodates himself to others
To tremble before anticipated evils is to bemoan what thou hast never lost.
English plays, Atrocious in content, Absurd in form, Objectionable in action, Execrable EnglishTheatre.
You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.
I had rather be Mercury, the smallest among seven [planets], revolving round the sun, than the first among five [moons] revolving round Saturn.