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
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as greater than he is
But what is your duty? What the day demands. [Ger., Was aber ist deine Pflicht? Die Forderung des Tages.]
Duty is the demand of the hour.
What then is your duty? What the day demands.
Truth is contrary to our nature, not so error, and this for a very simple reason: truth demands that we should recognize ourselves as limited, error flatters us that, in one way or another, we are unlimited.
One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands so seldom of others the impossible, but demands just that of the portraitists.
If you are to accomplish all that one demands of you, you must overestimate your own worth.
The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.
In all things it is better to hope than to despair
Each one sees what he carries in his heart
Everybody wants to get old, but nobody wants to be old
That is the true season of love; when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved as much before, and that no one will ever love in the same way again.
Impartiality is the life of justice, as justice is of all good government
Individuality seems to be Nature's whole aim -- and she cares nothing for individuals.