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
Individuality seems to be Nature's whole aim -- and she cares nothing for individuals.
If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
If your treat an individual ... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be right with the whole.
Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.
Certain faults are necessary to the individual if he is to exist.
The history of science is science itself; the history of the individual, the individual.
Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.
All that is alive tends toward color, individuality, specificity, effectiveness and opacity. All that is done with life inclines toward knowledge, abstraction, generality transfiguration and transparency.
Certain faults are necessary for the existence of the individual. We would resent it if old friends were to get rid of certain peculiarities.
The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.
Mankind? That is an abstraction. There have always been and always will be only individuals.
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.