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
Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.
One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.
How can we learn self-knowledge? Never by taking thought but rather by action. Try to do your duty and you'll soon discover what you're like.
The most congenial social occasions are those ruled by cheerful deference of each for all.
The highest happiness of man ... is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.
Not all that is presented to us as history has really happened; and what really happened did not actually happen the way it is presented to us; moreover, what really happened is only a small part of all that happened. Everything in history remains uncertain, the largest events as well as the smallest occurrence.
Whatever is the object of a saint's hope is the subject of his prayer.
We always hope, and in all things it is better to hope than to despair.
Yet here I stand poor fool what more, not one wit wiser than before.
What we do not understand we do not possess.
The fine emotions whence our lives we mold Lie in the earthly tumult dumb and cold.
My worthy friend, gray are all theories And green alone Life's golden tree.
Sing it not in mournful numbers.