To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheI had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheHe only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe desire to explain what is simple by what is complex, what is easy by what is difficult, is a calamity.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe thought of death leaves me in perfect peace, for I have a firm conviction that our spirit is a being of indestructible nature; it works on from eternity to eternity, it is like the sun, which though it seems to set to our mortal eyes, does not really set, but shines on perpetually.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe