“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

—  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Attributed to Goethe by popular British novelist Marie Corelli in her essay &quot;The Spirit of Work&quot; as published in The Queen&#x27;s Christmas carol : an anthology of poems, stories, essays, drawings and music / by British authors, artists and composers in 1905 by The Daily Mail of London. <br class="br">Attributed to Goethe by William Hutchinson Murray, in his book The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951), this has been shown to be a misattribution at &quot;German Myth 12: The Famous &#x27;Goethe&#x27; Quotation&quot;, Answer.com http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth12.htm and &quot;Popular Quotes: Commitment&quot;, Goethe Society of North America http://www.goethesociety.org/pages/quotescom.html <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe185
German writer, artist, and politician 1749–1832

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W. H. Murray

The Scottish Himalaya Expedition (1951) The "Goethe couplet" referred to here is from an extremely loose translation of Faust 214-30 done by John Anster in 1835. Reference:
This quote, or one similar to it, is often attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, however it was written by Mr. Murray near the beginning of the The Scottish Himalaya Expedition.

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