[Ads-l] Quote: What you can do, or dream you can, begin it, Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. (John Anster's translation of Goethe 1835)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some men see things as they are, and ask "Why?"

I dream things that never were, and ask, "WHAT THE HELL IS _THAT????????_"

JL

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 6:40 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
> Boldness
>               has genius, power, and magic in it. (John Anster's
> translation of
>               Goethe 1835)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Way back in October 2011 I posted to the list about a quotation that
> has often been incorrectly attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
> Now an entry on the topic is available on the QI website. Great thanks
> to Bonnie for help verifying the text of "The Scottish Himalayan
> Expedition" on paper.
>
> What You Can Do, or Dream You Can, Begin It; Boldness Has Genius,
> Power, and Magic in It
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/02/09/boldness/
>
> Feedback welcome,
> Garson
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Google Books now contains the translation of Goethe's Faustus that was
> > performed by John Anster and published in 1835. Apparently, it was a
> > very free translation. Below is the cite and a key couplet:
> >
> > Cite: 1835, Faustus, A Dramatic Mystery; The Bride of Corinth; The
> > First Walpurgis Night, Translated from the German of Goethe, and
> > Illustrated with Notes by John Anster, Printed for Longman, Rees,
> > Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, London. (Google Books full view)
> >
> >
> http://books.google.com/books?id=DpY6AAAAcAAJ&q=%22Boldness+has%22#v=snippet&
> >
> > What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
> > Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
> >
> >
> > YBQ has a later version of these two lines that begins with
> > "Whatever". I did not see these words in the Oxford Dictionary of
> > Quotations.
> >
> > The Goethe Society of North America has a discussion that includes
> > some lines in German that may be the section John Anster was freely
> > translating.
> > http://www.goethesociety.org/pages/quotescom.html
> >
> > Here is a longer section from the work by John Anster:
> >
> > Lose this day loitering--'twill be the same story
> > To-morrow--and the next more dilatory;
> > Then indecision brings its own delays,
> > And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.
> > Are you in earnest? seize this very minute--
> > What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
> > Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it,
> > Only engage, and then the mind grows heated--
> > Begin it, and the work will be completed!
> >
> > Garson
>
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>



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