Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Germany
28 Aug 1749 // 22 Mar 1832
Poet / Novelist / Humanist / Scientist / Philosopher

Quotes

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Every second is of infinite value
Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author
Every individual who is not creative has a negative, narrow, exclusive taste and succeeds in depriving creative being of its energy and life
Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal
By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect
A wife is a gift bestowed upon man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise
Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens
Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
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
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