Sketchy, doubtful, incomplete jottings

'I can promise to be candid, not, however, to be impartial.'A selection of the most insightful maxims and reflections from one of Germany's greatest ever thinkers. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday.

Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries.

They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe.

Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832). Goethe's works available in Penguin Classics are Faust, Part I, Faust, Part II, Maxims and Reflections, Elective Affinities, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Selected Poetry amd Italian Journey 1786-1788.