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
Our passion are the true phoenixes; when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes.
He who seizes the right moment, is the right man
He who has a firm will molds the world to himself.
He who does not think too much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines
He who does not know how to give himself an account of three thousand years may remain in the dark, inexperienced, and live from day to day
He who does not feel his friends to be the world to him, does not deserve that the world should hear of him.
He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home
has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in the epoch-making program.
Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us self-control is disastrous.
There is no art in turning a goddess into a witch, a virgin into a whore, but the opposite operation, to give dignity to what has been scorned, to make the degraded disireable, that calls for art or for character.
People may live as much retired from the world as they like, but sooner or later they find themselves debtor or creditor to some one.
People of a vertain rank will always keep a cool distance from common people, as if they were afraid to lose their dignity by too much familiarity.
Some of our weakness is born in us, some of it comes through education; it is a big question as to which gives us the most trouble.
National literature no longer means very much, the age of world literature is due.