I want to give you a glimpse into the life of arguably the greatest mind the world had ever seen. The German polymath, the genius' genius, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Goethe's collected works totaled 142 volumes and touched on nearly every field. Goethe was a physicist, lawyer, chemist, biologist, botanist, anatomist, evolutionist, writer, poet, painter, statesman, and philosopher. He is the founder of morphology (a branch of biology dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features), founder of human chemistry a pioneer following Newton in the study of light and color, a forerunner to Darwin and his evolution theory, the reason Freud went to medical school, and the intellectual mentor to none other than Albert Einstein.
Einstein not only kept a bust of Goethe in his study, but also for those who have been to Einstein's Princeton home, "what looms the largest in Einstein's personal library are the collected works of Goethe in a thirty-six volume edition and another twelve volumes, plus two volumes on his Optics, the exchange of letters between Goethe and Schiller, and a separate volume of Faust."
Goethe holds the record for having the words largest active vocabulary, three times that of Shakespeare. In 1850, Goethe was categorized by American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson as one of the six greatest all time geniuses in history.
At age seven, Goethe wrote a novel where members of a family in various parts of the world wrote letters to each other in six different languages and styles. At age twenty, he had published his first volume of poems, and had studied enough medicine to qualify as a physician.
By twenty-one he had prepared a PhD dissertation on history. By twenty-two he prepared and defended sixty-five thesis' , received his law degree, and began practicing. By twenty-four he had written his great tale Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, and by twenty-six he was world famous.
By thirty-one he had worked out the basics of evolutionary theory, a theory he called biological metamorphosis where he argued that humans not only evolved from lower animals, but that humans evolved from lower chemicals.
At thirty-six Goethe demonstrated through comparative osteology that humans possess an intermaxillary bone in the upper jaw, as found in other animals as proof for his evolution theory. At forty-seven Goethe gave his first description of affinity. At the age of fifty Goethe conceived his theory that humans are large types of chemicals whose passions, relationships, choices, and free will are governed by the forces of chemical affinity.
At the age of sixty he became the founder of human chemistry. At sixty-one he published his theory of colors, rival to Newton's theory of colors to explain light and perception. At eighty-two, the year of his death, Goethe finished the work he is best known for, Faust. Faust is a story of a man who is striving to learn everything that can be known and who in fact sells his soul to the devil so he could obtain the ultimate in knowledge possession.
Towards the end of his life, his personal library totaled over five-thousand books. " Among us smart folk, Einstein is considered "a little slow", and Hawking "means well", but you have to be a little clever just to appreciate the accomplishments of Goethe." I will end with a few quotes by Goethe.
Goethe's collected works totaled 142 volumes and touched on nearly every field. Goethe was a physicist, lawyer, chemist, biologist, botanist, anatomist, evolutionist, writer, poet, painter, statesman, and philosopher. He is the founder of morphology (a branch of biology dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features), founder of human chemistry a pioneer following Newton in the study of light and color, a forerunner to Darwin and his evolution theory, the reason Freud went to medical school, and the intellectual mentor to none other than Albert Einstein.
Einstein not only kept a bust of Goethe in his study, but also for those who have been to Einstein's Princeton home, "what looms the largest in Einstein's personal library are the collected works of Goethe in a thirty-six volume edition and another twelve volumes, plus two volumes on his Optics, the exchange of letters between Goethe and Schiller, and a separate volume of Faust."
Goethe holds the record for having the words largest active vocabulary, three times that of Shakespeare. In 1850, Goethe was categorized by American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson as one of the six greatest all time geniuses in history.
At age seven, Goethe wrote a novel where members of a family in various parts of the world wrote letters to each other in six different languages and styles. At age twenty, he had published his first volume of poems, and had studied enough medicine to qualify as a physician.
By twenty-one he had prepared a PhD dissertation on history. By twenty-two he prepared and defended sixty-five thesis' , received his law degree, and began practicing. By twenty-four he had written his great tale Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, and by twenty-six he was world famous.
By thirty-one he had worked out the basics of evolutionary theory, a theory he called biological metamorphosis where he argued that humans not only evolved from lower animals, but that humans evolved from lower chemicals.
At thirty-six Goethe demonstrated through comparative osteology that humans possess an intermaxillary bone in the upper jaw, as found in other animals as proof for his evolution theory. At forty-seven Goethe gave his first description of affinity. At the age of fifty Goethe conceived his theory that humans are large types of chemicals whose passions, relationships, choices, and free will are governed by the forces of chemical affinity.
At the age of sixty he became the founder of human chemistry. At sixty-one he published his theory of colors, rival to Newton's theory of colors to explain light and perception. At eighty-two, the year of his death, Goethe finished the work he is best known for, Faust. Faust is a story of a man who is striving to learn everything that can be known and who in fact sells his soul to the devil so he could obtain the ultimate in knowledge possession.
Towards the end of his life, his personal library totaled over five-thousand books. " Among us smart folk, Einstein is considered "a little slow", and Hawking "means well", but you have to be a little clever just to appreciate the accomplishments of Goethe." I will end with a few quotes by Goethe.
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.
All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
Live dangerously and you live right.
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
A person hears only what they understand.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe