Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his whole heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities, 1809)
Everything perfect in its kind has to transcend its own kind, it must become something different and incomparable. In some notes the nightingale is still a bird; then it rises above its class and seems to suggest to every winged creature what singing is truly like.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities, 1809)
Someone criticized an elderly man for wooing young women. He replied that that was the only way to rejuvenation, which was, after all, everybody's wish.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities, 1809)
We don't get to know people when they come to us; we have to go to them so as to learn what they are like.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities, 1809)
Certain faults are necessary for the existence of the individual. We would resent it if old friends were to get rid of certain peculiarities.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities, 1809)
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Elective Affinities, 1809)
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