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
Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom, Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose!
Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
You don't have to travel around the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere
To act is easy; to think is hard.
It is the great triumph of genius to make the common appear novel.
These auspicious aspects, which the astrologers subsequently interpreted for me, may have been the causes of my preservation.
As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.
There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.
In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.
Since I have heard often enough that everyone in the end has his own religion, nothing seemed more natural to me than to fashion my own.
Seize this very minute. What you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Begin it and the work will be completed
Do not, I beg you, look for anything behind phenomena. They are themselves their own lesson.
The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.
Art is constitutive-the artist determines beauty. He does not take it over.