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 destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinions of its young men under five-and-twenty
Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny
The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five.
What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness?
Is this the destiny of man? Is he only happy before he has acquired his reason or after he has lost it?
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
The best genius is that which absorbs and assimilates everything without doing the least violence to its fundamental destiny.
Since you know me and my destiny only too well, you probably also know what attracts me to all unfortunate people.
How circumscribed is woman's destiny!
Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it.
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
When all is said the greatest action is to limit and isolate one's self.
I've studied now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine - and even, alas! Theology - from end to end with labor keen; and here, poor fool with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before.
I've studied now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine -- and even, alas! Theology -- from end to end with labor keen; and here, poor fool with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before.