Born in 1749, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and poet. His body of work includes both epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of styles, as well as several works of prose, including verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticisms; treatises on botany, anatomy, and color; and four novels. To say that Goethe was well-respected would be a gross understatement. There are frequent references to Goethe’s writings throughout the works of Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hesse, Mann, Freud, and Jung, and Ralph Waldo Emerson selected Goethe as one of six “representative men” in his work of the same name, along with Plato, Napoleon, and Shakespeare. Goethe’s poems were also set to music throughout the 18th & 19th centuries by a number of famous composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Gounod, Wagner, Wolf, and Mahler.

“From our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe … Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build … Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” ~ Goethe

 

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt