“He alone is great and happy who fills his own station of independence, and has neither to command nor to obey.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Götz von Berlichingen (1773), Act I

About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749 – 1832

German poet and polymath, author of "Faust".

“Youth is intoxication without wine.”

“When we lack ourselves, we lack everything.”

“But what is your duty? What the day demands.”

“The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.”

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”

“If you command wisely, you'll be obeyed cheerfully.”

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”

“A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all—that is myself.”