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
Waste not a day in vain digression; with resolute, courageous trust seek every possible impression and make it firmly your posession you'll then work on because you must.
The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.
What I possess, seems far away to me, and what is gone becomes reality.
[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.
Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.
What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.
Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.
To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.
To hard necessity ones will and fancy must conform.
The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.
Superstition is the poetry of life.
He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.