Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. ...For this reason, one ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheGod made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheTo me the external existence of my soul is proved from my idea of activity. If I work incessantly until my death, nature will give me another form of existence when the present can no longer sustain my spirit.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheTrue art can only spring from the intimate linking of the serious and the playful.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe