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
As soon as you are in a social setting, you better take away the key to the lock of your heart and pocket it; those who leave thekey in the lock are fools.
New inventions can and will be made; however, nothing new can be thought of that concerns moral man. Everything has already been thought and said which at best we can express in different forms and give new expressions to.
For usually people resist as long as they can to dismiss the fool they harbor in their bosom, they resist to confess a major mistake or to admit a truth that makes them despair.
One can't dull a project better than by discussing it repeatedly.
We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.
One must not criticize that which is common since it remains always the same.
Sameness leaves us in peace but it is contradiction that makes us productive.
No matter what one says, you can recognize only those matters that are equal to you. Only rulers who possess extraordinary abilities will recognize and esteem properly extraordinary abilities in their subjects and servants.
Are we not also married to conscience which we would love to get rid of often enough since it is more bothersome than a man or a woman ever could become?
When married one has to get into an argument once in a while since in this way one learns about the other.
If one doesn't know one's own country, one doesn't have standards for foreign countries.
Certain faults are necessary for the existence of the individual. We would resent it if old friends were to get rid of certain peculiarities.
Mastery is proven only in limitation, and law alone can give us freedom.
What is part of you, you cannot get rid of, even if you were to throw it away.