Goethe Quotes
Poet, scientist, legend
These Goethe quotes highlight his rare double legacy, noting real scientific work in plant morphology alongside the literary reputation many College students only vaguely recall.
Ask Jeeves! Who ever used that thing? College freshmen to find out who Goethe was - that's it.
I often think of the different ways Goethe and Darwin got at evolution. Goethe had the poetic conception of it all right; Darwin worked it out step by step. Who's ahead? And which has any business scoffing at the other?
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Goethe died in 1832. As you know, Goethe was very active in science. In fact, he did some very good scientific work in plant morphology and mineralogy. But he was quite bitter at the way in which many scientists refused...
We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the morning.
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Music is the same to me as it was to Goethe - a pleasant noise. I am an eye man, not an ear man.
When I'm working with German audiences, I will call on my Rilke and Goethe in the original.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How did Goethe and Darwin differ in their approach to evolution?
Was Goethe only a writer, or did he do real scientific work?
Why is Goethe sometimes an obscure name to younger generations?
What unsettling historical contrast appears in one Goethe quote?
When did Goethe die, according to these quotes?
Other lines compare his poetic intuition about evolution to Darwin's step-by-step method, a contrast some still Call one of history's great intellectual rivalries.
