"Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on this day in 1749 in in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was a Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Natural Philosopher, Diplomat, Civil Servant, Lawyer, and Mystic.
He wrote many poems and plays. He wrote the short novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, or The Sorrows of Young Wertherin 1774, recounts an unhappy romantic infatuation that ends in suicide. Goethe admitted that he "shot his hero to save himself": a reference to Goethe's own near-suicidal obsession with a young woman during this period, an obsession he quelled through the writing process.
He also penned Faust, a tragic play in which the main character, Heinrich Faust, sells his soul to the Devil for power over the material world. He wrote it in 1808, but it was only published in it's entirety after his death (March 22nd, 1832).
He wrote many poems and plays. He wrote the short novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, or The Sorrows of Young Wertherin 1774, recounts an unhappy romantic infatuation that ends in suicide. Goethe admitted that he "shot his hero to save himself": a reference to Goethe's own near-suicidal obsession with a young woman during this period, an obsession he quelled through the writing process.
He also penned Faust, a tragic play in which the main character, Heinrich Faust, sells his soul to the Devil for power over the material world. He wrote it in 1808, but it was only published in it's entirety after his death (March 22nd, 1832).
"Character develops itself in the stream of life."
"Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago."
"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction."
"Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men."
"All extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane."
"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction."
"Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men."
"All extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane."