1749–1832
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Poet, minister, natural scientist. For sixty years he wrote down everything that crossed his mind and produced sentences everybody knows and almost nobody can place.
“It is not enough to know, one must apply. It is not enough to will, one must do.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years
“Who cannot give account of three thousand years stays in the dark, unlearned, living day to day.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · West-Eastern Divan
“The present is a mighty goddess.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · Torquato Tasso
Works up to 1832, public domain. Only verifiable passages; the many sayings attributed to Goethe without a source are deliberately left out.