Here are fifteen quotes by German poet, novelist, playwright, scientist and social critic, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). For context, both Mozart and Beethoven lived and died during his life and extended career. This period of history also saw both the American and French Revolutions and later Europe’s years of turbulence during the Napoleonic wars. Schooled at home, Goethe entered law school in Leipzig at age 16, but was taken ill for an eighteen month period before graduating, a time during which he lived as a recluse. I think of many whose long term careers were influenced by unanticipated personal hardships early in life. (Francis Ford Coppola and Teddy Roosevelt come to mind at this moment.) Perhaps this kind of experience is at the root of the oft quoted maxim by another famous German, “What does not kill me makes me stronger.”*
Two of Goethe’s most significant works were his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, a famously sentimental journey, and his tragic play Faust, which became “the mouthpiece of Goethe’s own struggles and aspirations.”** His work on Faust pre-occupied the second half of his life, having been initiated in the mid-1770s and finished in 1831.
After his passing the importance of his life and work grew in prestige so that his name was even linked with the likes of Homer, Dante and Shakespeare. How is it, then, that today eight out of ten people are more likely to know who’s on Dancing with the Stars than who Goethe was, and fewer there are who have read a word of his works. Here are some of the many Goethe…
