Memorable Quotations: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, and scientist. His poetry conveys a modern observation of humanity’s connection to nature, history, and society; his plays and novels reveal a deep understanding of human individualism. Goethe’s significance can be assessed by the weight of his critical writings, his immense correspondence, and his poetry, dramas, and novels upon the authors of his own time and upon the literary movements which he initiated and of which he was the leading individual. According to the 19th-century English critic Matthew Arnold, Goethe must be deemed not only “the manifest center of German literature” but one of the most multitalented notables in all world literature.