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
The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality.
One glance, one word from you gives more pleasure than all the wisdom of this world.
We are the slaves of objects around us, and appear little or important according as these contract or give us room to expand.
Traveling is like gambling: it is always connected with winning and losing and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for.
The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his whole heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter.
Is not the core of nature in the heart of man?
The worst is that the very hardest thinking will not bring thoughts. They must come like good children of God and cry, "Here we are." You expend effort and energy thinking hard. Then, after you have given up, they come sauntering in with their hands in their pockets. If the effort had not been made to open the door, however, who knows when they could have come.
Men are joined by conviction, sundered by opinion.
No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.
Our passions are true phoenixes; as the old burn out the new straight rise up from the ashes.
So, lively brisk old fellow, don't let age get you down. White hairs or not, you can still be a lover.
Ambition and love are the wings of great actions.
With knowledge grows doubt.
Doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay...