The passing thoughts Goethe jotted down during his long, varied, and hectic life -- thankfully preserved on theater programs, visiting cards, draft manuscripts, and bills -- show him to be the last true "Renaissance man" of Europe. Although employed as a privy councillor at the Duke of Weimar's court, he also painted; directed plays; carried out research in the classics, anatomy, botany, and optics; and still found time to produce masterpieces in every literary genre. His 1,413 maxims and reflections reveal not only some of his deepest thoughts on art, ethics, literature, and natural science but also his immediate reactions to books, chance encounters, and his administrative work. With freshness and immediacy, Maxims and Reflections vividly conjures up Goethe the man and the genius.