Goethe on music and art

To keep young,  everyday read a poem, hear a choice piece of music, view a fine painting, and, if possible, do a good action.  Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances, and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) Quoted in Music Lovers Quotations, edited by Helen Exley.  

Goethe was a German writer, statesman, and philosopher.  He is considered by some as the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.