“All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticea…”

“All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticeable manner; it is supposed to make us aware of what it would be valuable to instruct ourselves in; we must deduce the lesson on our own, just as with life.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Verification

Attributed

Recorded by a reliable secondary source; exact wording may differ.

Imported from Wikiquote; not yet checked by QuoteQuest against the original source.

Source

Title: Wikiquote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Type: reference · Secondary source
Held by: Wikiquote

View source at Wikiquote

Context

Letter to Carl Friedrich Zelter (26 November 1825)

Cite this source

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. (n.d.). Wikiquote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Wikiquote. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

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Provenance: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA)