142: “The hatred and violence that you can already feel rising up in people. Nothing pure left in them. Nothing unique. They think together. You meet only beasts, bestial European faces. The world makes us feel sick, like this universal wave of cowardice, this mockery of courage, this parody of greatness, and this withering away of honor.”
So it is. This is where Solomon comes back full-force: there really is nothing new under the sun.
142: “There is one fatality which is death, and outside this all other fatality disappears. In the space of time between birth and death, nothing its [sic] predetermined. You can change eveything, you can stop the war and even maintain peace, if you want to do so intensely and for a long time.”
That’s so existential it hurts. You just have to want to change the world, and you can. Too optimistic, or is there something hidden there that’s closed to my eyes because of cynicism?
142: “Rule: Start by looking for what is valid in every man.”
Absolutely. And, furthermore, look for what is valid in every thought and philosophy that exits a person’s mouth or pen—and never stop learning. As soon as you think you’ve mastered what it is to live, think again.
144: “Goethe (to Eckermann): If I had wanted to throw off all forms of constraint, it would have been in my power to cause my own complete ruin and that of everyone around me.
“The first thing is to learn to rule over oneself.”
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, the amount of truth here. It’s not a testament of Goethe’s unique strength so much as it is a testament of how we’re all interconnected, and how one person affects another, for good or for ill. The closer you are to someone, the more power they have to destroy you—aye, but also you them. It’s what makes love so profound in the first place.
