Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Germany
28 Aug 1749 // 22 Mar 1832
Poet / Novelist / Humanist / Scientist / Philosopher
28 Aug 1749 // 22 Mar 1832
Poet / Novelist / Humanist / Scientist / Philosopher
Quotes
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We are shaped and fashioned by what we love
Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse
To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities
To act is easy; to think is hard
To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability
Time does not relinquish its rights, either over human beings or over mountains
The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work
The solution of every problem is another problem
The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear
The most original modern authors are not so because they advance what is new, but simply because they know how to put what they have to say, as if it had never been said before
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays