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
A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world’s torrent.
Ye great teachers: listen to what you say!
The soul of the Christian religion is reverence.
What I possess I would gladly retain. Change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits.
Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, in fear of getting burned.
Nothing is more damaging to the truth than an old error.
We see only what we know.
God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom.
Treat a person as they are, they will remain so. Treat a person the way that person can be and is capable of being and that person will become as he or she can be and should be.
Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.
Our modern wars make many unhappy while they last and none happy when they are over.
Patriotism corrupts history.
Legislators and revolutionaries who promise both equality and liberty are visionaries and charlatans.
In politics as on a sickbed men toss from side to side in hope of lying more comfortably.