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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The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament
Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hope of new pleasure, is it worthwhile to dress and undress?
Sin writes histories, goodness is silent
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution
Originality provokes originality
Nothing hurts a new truth more than an old error
Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal
Man errs as long as he strives
Man cannot persist long in a conscious state, he must throw himself back into the unconscious, for his root lives there
Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic
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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