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
Alas, that we should be so unwilling to listen to the still and holy yearnings of the heart! A god whispers quite softly in our breast, softly yet audibly; telling us what we ought to seek and what to shun.
Each traveler should know what he has to see, and what properly belongs to him, on a journey.
The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.
We talk too much. We should talk less and draw more.
If there is confusion in your head and in your heart, what more do you want! A man who no longer loves and no longer errs should have himself buried straight away.
One should not search for anything behind the phenomena. They themselves are the message.
Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
In art, to express the infinite one should suggest infinitely more than is expressed.
No one should be rich except those who understand it.
They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!
It has ever been my fate to give pain to those whose happiness I should have promoted.
We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble one another.
It is the fortunate who should extol fortune. [Ger., Das Gluck erhebe billig der Begluckte.]
I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.