No doubt you are right, my best of friends, there would be far less suffering amongst mankind, if men—and God… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
No doubt you are right, my best of friends, there would be far less suffering amongst mankind, if men—and God knows why they are so fashioned—did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.
Gewiss, du hast recht, Bester, der Schmerzen wären minder unter den Menschen, wenn sie nicht - Gott weiss, warum sie so gemacht sind - mit so viel Emsigkeit der Einbildungskraft sich beschäftigten, die Erinnerungen des vergangenen Übels zurückzurufen, eher als eine gleichgültige Gegenwart zu ertragen.
Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
More from this book
I know very well that we are not all equal, nor can be so; but it is my opinion that he who deems it important to keep aloof from the so-called rabble in order to maintain their respect is as culpable as a coward who hides himself from his enemy because he fears defeat.
I have been more than once intoxicated, my passions have always bordered on extravagance: I am not ashamed to confess it; for I have learned, by my own experience, that all extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane.
If only, dear friend, these precious treasures, beautiful and priceless as they are, were not so fragile too.
