Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 - 1832
Oil on canvas by Joseph Karl Stieler (1828)
Born: 28 August 1749, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Holy Roman Empire
Died: 22 March 1832, Weimar, Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Goethe's father Caspar, frustrated at his own advancement due to poor education, hired tutors to teach Johann and his sister Cornelia. By the time he was sent to Leipzig to study law at age 15, he spoke six languages. He detested the rote learning of judicial rules and devoted much of his time to poetry; he was sent home for lack of progress. He spent a year and a half in and out of bed with an unknown illness and several relapses, then went to Strasbourg to complete his legal studies. He briefly practiced law at Frankfurt, published his first drama, and was an editor of literary magazine. He moved to Wetzlar in 1772 and attempted the law again, but two years later he wrote The Sorrows of Young Wether which established his name. On the strength of that book he was invited to join the court of Grand Duke Carl August at Weimar as a close advisor; other than two years traveling in Italy he remained in this post for the rest of his life. He assisted the Duke's military actions, including a failed invasion of France in 1792. In 1794 he began a collaboration with Friedrich Schiller which lasted until the latter's death in 1805. In 1806 Napoleon's army invaded Weimar and the home in which Goethe, his mistress Christine Vulpius, and at least one of their children were living. Christine resisted and barricaded the family in the kitchen and cellar. Goethe quietly married Christine, with whom he had lived for eighteen years, the next day. As a poet, novelist, and dramatist he practically defined German intellectual activity for much of his adult life, he also was a scientist and pursued geology, botany, anatomy, physics, and the history of science.
Biography from Wikipedia
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes:
Quotes found : 194 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 13) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
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- A clever man commits no minor blunders. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A man who does not know foreign language is ignorant of his own. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A man's errors are what make him amiable. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A person can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days. permalink
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - A phenomenon like Mozart remains an inexplicable thing. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - A useless life is an early death. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Iphigenie auf Tauris - A world without love would be no world. permalink
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Quotes found : 194 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 13) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
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