Even though the world as a whole progresses, youth must always start again from the beginning, and as individuals go through the epochs of the world's culture.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheA vi'let on the meadow grew, That no one saw, that no one knew, It was a modest flower. A shepherdess pass'd by that way-- Light footed, pretty and so gay; That way she came, Softly warbling forth her lay.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThere is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheCommonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe