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
It matters little whether a man be mathematically or philologically or artistically cultivated, so he be but cultivated.
Poor fool! in whose petty estimation all things are little.
The little man is still a man.
Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.
Here too it’s masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind. I grasped a lovely masked procession, And caught things from a horror show… I’d gladly settle for a false impression, If it would last a little longer, though.
With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.
With little art, clear wit and sense Suggest their own delivery.
The little that is completed, vanishes from the sight of one who looks forward to what is still to do.
All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.
Literature is a fragment of a fragment. Of all that ever happened, or has been said, but a fraction has been written; and of this but little is extant.
A man is not little when he finds it difficult to cope with circumstances, but when circumstances overmaster him.
Riches amassed in haste will diminish; but those collected by hand and little by little will multiply.
He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.
If you call a thing bad you do little, if you call a thing good you do much