Maxims and Reflections

The man must be the most clever man that ever lived. Some maxims are very pretentious some are too complicated some are overblown but I must admit some are very fine. He seemed expert in everything. You must dig deep and on the end you will find some gold nuggets. I read this book occasionally and is a companion piece to Gratian Balthasar, Chesterton or C.S. Lewis. Definitely a must read.

One of my top 5 books ever!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born Aug. 28,1749,Frankfurt am Main-died March 22,1832,Weimar,Saxe-Weimar). German poet,novelist,playright and natural philosopher.His chief masterpiece,the philosophical drama FAUST (Part 1,1808;Part 11 1832) concerns the struggle of the soul for knowledge,power,happiness and salvation.Maxims and Reflections is a collection of thoughts and observations, covering a wide variety of subjects.His thoughts on ethics,literature,art and the natural sciences are portrayed in 6 Sections. 1-FROM ELECTED AFFINITIES (1809),FROM ART AND ANTIQUITY IN written from 1818-1827,FROM THE PERIODICAL ISSUES ON MORHOLOGY(1822),FROM THE PERIODICAL ISSUES ON THE NATURAL SCIENCES(1823),FROM WILHELM MEISTER'S JOURNEYMAN YEARS(1829),And POSTHUMOUS.There are 1,413 maxims and reflections from the one of the giants of world literature.It's pocket size. Short, sweet and expressive obervations on life in an eloquent and laconic style.I carry it with me everywhere.here is a little taste:"...hatred is active displeasure,envy is passive,hence one not be suprised when envy turns into hatred..." #247 from ART AN ANTIQUITY"...a merry companion is like a cart to give us a lift along our way..."#236 from ART AND ANTIQUITY"...when a rainbow last more than a quarter of an hour,we stop looking at it...#161- From ART AND ANTIQUITY

A must read for every year !! Shines a very bright light on follies to avoid whilst taking a path less travelled

Is Goethe dead? His immense reputation in the 19th century among English writers (Lewes wrote a splendid biography of him, Carlyle translated WILHELM MEISTER, Arnold and George Eliot considered him one of the greatest writers ever, etc.)isn't merely diminshed, it's disappear from sight.James Joyce punningly said that the great masters were "Dainty, Gouty, and Shopkeeper". T.S. Eliot was ready to agree with 2/3 of that estimate, but he disliked Goethe, mostly because Goethe was indifferent to Christianity (though not necessarily to some form of Theism).I admit that Goethe has something of the quality of a stuffed shirt. His Weimar days are hard to fathom, why he wanted to be an official, and often he seems to be speaking ex cathedra when his opinions are just garden-variety stuff.If you don't read German, his lyric poetry is a closed book, in spite of David Luke's excellent translations in a Penguin paperback. His scientific pursuits are more of biographical than intrinsic interest, and FAUST is best digested in small amounts (and Book 2 can be safely ignored).Still, there's enough in his novels and books like the one I'm reviewing to make him interesting to read. He's harder to appreciate than Dante, and of course Shakespeare is the major figure in Joyce's trio. Nevertheless, it's easy to understand why his status was once greater than it can be to a modern common reader.