Book: Years of teaching Wilhelm Meister

The connection that exists in nature, says Goethe, also exists in the human world. Man is a collective being, and only by working shoulder to shoulder with other people, only by giving himself to others, does a person acquire his strength and his meaning.

Since ancient times, people have dreamed of eternal youth, for youth is a feeling of the fullness of being, it is a surge of creative strength, it is a thirst for activity, it is a belief in the possibility of happiness, in the possibility of fulfilling a beautiful dream.

When a person climbs a mountain, when he boldly walks forward and more and more horizons open up in front of him, then at some moments he wants to look back at the path he has traveled, he wants to see those milestones that once stood on his way, to measure the distance traveled by him, to glimpse the difficulties that stood in front of him and with which he had to fight. The same natural desire exists in humanity when, in its incessant movement forward, it reaches a certain stage of social development.

A person should not be ashamed of his origin.

It is difficult to imagine what an educated person can do for himself and others if he, without intending to rule, wants to be the trustee of many, directs them to do in time what they themselves would willingly do, and leads them to the goals that they are in in most cases they see well in front of them and just do not know the ways to them.

We, people, complain about ourselves in vain, we complain about fate in vain! We are miserable and doomed to a miserable existence. And does it matter whether our own guilt, influence from above or chance, vice or virtue, wisdom or madness will cast us into the abyss of destruction.

He must not forget that he does not live in the free world of his thoughts and ideas, but in the state, the laws and relations of which have acquired the indisputability of the laws of nature.

One has only to calmly walk around the gallery for a while and observe which works of art capture the attention of the crowd, which it praises, which it passes by indifferently, and you lose your love for the present and hope for the future.

It is difficult even to imagine what circumstances can do to an artist; moreover, the greatest genius, the most indisputable talent, have endless demands that he has to present to himself, and the indescribable diligence necessary for his development.

After all, everything is nothing when the only thing that is worth everything else in the eyes of a person is absent.

One evening the troupe argued over whether it deserved preference - a novel or a drama. Mirror insisted that this was a useless argument based on a misunderstanding, and both could be excellent in their own way, as long as they only stay within the limits of their kind.

He began to talk more often about art, because after all he was a German, and this nation loves to be aware of what it is doing.

Mirror believed that with the plays as they are, there is nothing to be especially careful about, because of this, Shakespeare, and especially Hamlet, had to undergo many changes.

Wilhelm was still going through that happy age when a person is unable to understand that a beloved girl, an adored writer, may have shortcomings.