## Metadata * Author: [[Johann Goethe]] * ASIN: B077PGQGLR * ISBN: B09KN9YK37 * Reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077PGQGLR ## Highlights misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. — location: [37](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=37) ^ref-34026 --- All learned professors and doctors are agreed that children do not comprehend the cause of their desires; but that the grown-up should wander about this earth like children, without knowing whence they come, or whither they go, influenced as little by fixed motives, but guided like them by biscuits, sugar-plums, and the rod,—this is what nobody is willing to acknowledge; and yet I think it is palpable. I know what you will say in reply; for I am ready to admit that they are happiest, who, like children, amuse themselves with their playthings, dress and undress their dolls, and attentively watch the cupboard, where mamma has locked up her sweet things, and, when at last they get a delicious morsel, eat it greedily, and exclaim, “More!” These are certainly happy beings; but others also are objects of envy, who dignify their paltry employments, and sometimes even their passions, with pompous titles, representing them to mankind as gigantic achievements performed for their welfare and glory. But the man who humbly acknowledges the vanity of all this, who observes with what pleasure the thriving citizen converts his little garden into a paradise, and how patiently even the poor man pursues his weary way under his burden, and how all wish equally to behold the light of the sun a little longer,—yes, such a man is at peace, and creates his own world within himself; and he is also happy, because he is a man. And then, however limited his sphere, he still preserves in his bosom the sweet feeling of liberty, and knows that he can quit his prison whenever he likes. — location: [118](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=118) ^ref-53858 --- Can we never take pleasure in nature without having recourse to art? — location: [181](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=181) ^ref-58485 --- Happy is it, indeed, for me that my heart is capable of feeling the same simple and innocent pleasure as the peasant whose table is covered with food of his own rearing, and who not only enjoys his meal, but remembers with delight the happy days and sunny mornings when he planted it, the soft evenings when he watered it, and the pleasure he experienced in watching its daily growth. — location: [350](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=350) ^ref-57013 --- Is it not enough that we want the power to make one another happy, must we deprive each other of the pleasure which we can all make for ourselves? Show me the man who has the courage to hide his ill-humour, who bears the whole burden himself, without disturbing the peace of those around him. No: ill-humour arises from an inward consciousness of our own want of merit, from a discontent which ever accompanies that envy which foolish vanity engenders. We see people happy, whom we have not made so, and cannot endure the sight.” — location: [414](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=414) ^ref-27274 --- “Woe unto those,” I said, “who use their power over a human heart to destroy the simple pleasures it would naturally enjoy! — location: [418](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=418) ^ref-48711 --- You say my mother wishes me to be employed. I could not help laughing at that. Am I not sufficiently employed? And is it not in reality the same, whether I shell peas or count lentils? The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool. — location: [508](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=508) ^ref-48207 --- I can tolerate all men till they come to “however;” — location: [586](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=586) ^ref-7383 --- our happiness or misery depends very much on the objects and persons around us. — location: [808](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=808) ^ref-13714 --- On this account, nothing is more dangerous than solitude: there our imagination, always disposed to rise, taking a new flight on the wings of fancy, pictures to us a chain of beings of whom we seem the most inferior. — location: [809](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=809) ^ref-48320 --- All things appear greater than they really are, and all seem superior to us. This operation of the mind is quite natural: we so continually feel our own imperfections, and fancy we perceive in others the qualities we do not possess, attributing to them also all that we enjoy ourselves, that by this process we form the idea of a perfect, happy man,—a man, however, who only exists in our own imagination. — location: [810](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B077PGQGLR&location=810) ^ref-36029 ---