Maxims and Reflections
adheres to mere expression; he must have complete liberty to give his
author's meaning and style in the manner which he holds to be truest to
the original; and so, in translating from a foreign tongue, it will be
well for him to have some knowledge of his own. But he must guard
against the abuse of his position: his liberty may become license, and
his translation instead of being faithful may be phantastic. The
translator's first and last duty is, then, to efface himself. His first
duty is to stand entirely at the point of view of his author's thought;
his last, to find the clearest and nearest expression in his own
language both for that thought and for whatever is characteristic in the
way of conveying it; neither adding anything of his own nor taking away
anything from his author. The best translation is thus a re-embodiment
of the author's spirit, a real metempsychosis. Nothing can be done
without ideals, and this is the ideal at which the present translation
aims. That it fails of its aim and has many defects, no one knows better
than the translator himself; and he can only cherish the hope that where
he falls short he is sometimes close to the confines of what cannot be
translated.
December 2, 1892.
[1] _Goethe's Sprüche in Prosa_: zum ersten Mal erläutert und auf ihre
Quellen zurückgeführt von G. v. Loeper, Berlin, 1870. This forms the
text of the translation.
[2] _Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre_, Bk. I. ch. 10.
[3] _Gespräche mit Eckermann_, III. 4 January, 1824.
LIFE AND CHARACTER
I
1
There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must
only try to think it again.
2
How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try
to do your duty, and you will know at once what you are worth.
3
But what is your duty? The claims of the day.
4
The world of reason is to be regarded as a great and immortal being, who
ceaselessly works out what is necessary, and so makes himself lord also
over what is accidental.
5
The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his
supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and
freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity,--to see him taken
up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants
to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling
miserably over everything.
6
Be genuine and strenuous; earn for yourself, and look for, grace from
those in high places; from the powerful, favour; from the active and
the good, advancement; from the many, affection; from the individual,
love.
7
Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. If I
know what your business is, I know what can be made of you.
8
Every man must think after his own fashion; for on his own path he finds
a truth, or a kind of truth, which helps him through life. But he must
not give himself the rein; he must control himself; mere naked instinct
does not become him.
9
Unqualified activity, of whatever kind, leads at last to bankruptcy.
10
In the works of mankind, as in those of nature, it is really the motive
which is chiefly worth attention.
11
Men get out of countenance with themselves and others because they treat
the means as the end, and so, from sheer doing, do nothing, or, perhaps,
just what they would have avoided.
12
Our plans and designs should be so perfect in truth and beauty, that in
touching them the world could only mar. We should thus have the
advantage of setting right what is wrong, and restoring what is
destroyed.
13
It is a very hard and troublesome thing to dispose of whole, half-, and
quarter-mistakes; to sift them and assign the portion of truth to its
proper place.
14
It is not always needful for truth to take a definite shape; it is
enough if it hovers about us like a spirit and produces harmony; if it
is wafted through the air like the sound of a bell, grave and kindly.
15
General ideas and great conceit are always in a fair way to bring about
terrible misfortune.
16
You cannot play the flute by blowing alone: you must use your fingers.
17
In Botany there is a species of plants called _Incompletæ_; and just in
the same way it can be said that there are men who are incomplete and
imperfect. They are those whose desires and struggles are out of
proportion to their actions and achievements.
18
The most insignificant man can be complete if he works within the limits
of his capacities, innate or acquired; but even fine talents can be
obscured, neutralised, and destroyed by lack of this indispensable
requirement of symmetry. This is a mischief which will often occur in
modern times; for who will be able to come up to the claims of an age so
full and intense as this, and one too that moves so rapidly?
19
It is only men of practical ability, knowing their powers and using them
with moderation and prudence, who will be successful in worldly affairs.
20
It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less
than one is worth.
21
From time to time I meet with a youth in whom I can wish for no
alteration or improvement, only I am sorry to see how often his nature
makes him quite ready to swim with the stream of the time; and it is on
this that I would always insist, that man in his fragile boat has the
rudder placed in his hand, just that he may not be at the mercy of the
waves, but follow the direction of his own insight.
22
But how is a young man to come of himself to see blame in things which
every one is busy with, which every one approves and promotes? Why
should he not follow his natural bent and go in the same direction as
they?
23
I must hold it for the greatest calamity of our time, which lets nothing
come to maturity, that one moment is consumed by the next, and the day
spent in the day; so that a man is always living from hand to mouth,
without having anything to show for it. Have we not already newspapers
for every hour of the day! A good head could assuredly intercalate one
or other of them. They publish abroad everything that every one does, or
is busy with or meditating; nay, his very designs are thereby dragged
into publicity. No one can rejoice or be sorry, but as a pastime for
others; and so it goes on from house to house, from city to city, from
kingdom to kingdom, and at last from one hemisphere to the other,--all
in post haste.
24
As little as you can stifle a steam-engine, so little can you do this in
the moral sphere either. The activity of commerce, the rush and rustle
of paper-money, the swelling-up of debts to pay debts--all these are
the monstrous elements to which in these days a young man is exposed.
Well is it for him if he is gifted by nature with a sober, quiet
temperament; neither to make claims on the world out of all proportion
to his position, nor yet let the world determine it.
25
But on all sides he is threatened by the spirit of the day, and nothing
is more needful than to make him see early enough the direction in which
his will has to steer.
26
The significance of the most harmless words and actions grows with the
years, and if I see any one about me for any length of time, I always
try to show him the difference there is between sincerity, confidence,
and indiscretion; nay, that in truth there is no difference at all, but
a gentle transition from what is most innocent to what is most hurtful;
a transition which must be perceived or rather felt.
27
Herein we must exercise our tact; otherwise in the very way in which we
have won the favour of mankind, we run the risk of trifling it away
again unawares. This is a lesson which a man learns quite well for
himself in the course of life, but only after having paid a dear price
for it; nor can he, unhappily, spare his posterity a like expenditure.
28
Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and
value the good in everything.
29
Character calls forth character.
30
If I am to listen to another man's opinion, it must be expressed
positively. Of things problematical I have enough in myself.
31
Superstition is a part of the very being of humanity; and when we fancy
that we are banishing it altogether, it takes refuge in the strangest
nooks and corners, and then suddenly comes forth again, as soon as it
believes itself at all safe.
32
I keep silence about many things, for I do not want to put people out of
countenance; and I am well content if they are pleased with things that
annoy me.
33
Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves
is ruinous.
34
A man is really alive only when he delights in the good-will of others.
35
Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest
culture by the purest tranquillity of soul.
36
Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and
object are mostly hypocrites.
37
When a man is old he must do more than when he was young.
38
To fulfil a duty is still always to feel it as a debt, for it is never
quite satisfying to oneself.
39
Defects are perceived only by one who has no love; therefore, to see
them, a man must become uncharitable, but not more so than is necessary
for the purpose.
40
The greatest piece of good fortune is that which corrects our
deficiencies and redeems our mistakes.
41
Reading ought to mean understanding; writing ought to mean knowing
something; believing ought to mean comprehending; when you desire a
thing, you will have to take it; when you demand it, you will not get
it; and when you are experienced, you ought to be useful to others.
42
The stream is friendly to the miller whom it serves; it likes to pour
over the mill wheels; what is the good of it stealing through the valley
in apathy?
43
Whoso is content with pure experience and acts upon it has enough of
truth. The growing child is wise in this sense.
44
Theory is in itself of no use, except in so far as it makes us believe
in the connection of phenomena.
45
When a man asks too much and delights in complication, he is exposed to
perplexity.
46
Thinking by means of analogies is not to be condemned. Analogy has this
advantage, that it comes to no conclusion, and does not, in truth, aim
at finality at all. Induction, on the contrary, is fatal, for it sets up
an object and keeps it in view, and, working on towards it, drags false
and true with it in its train.
47
The absent works upon us by tradition. The usual form of it may be
called historical; a higher form, akin to the imaginative faculty, is
the mythical. If some third form of it is to be sought behind this last,
and it has any meaning, it is transformed into the mystical. It also
easily becomes sentimental, so that we appropriate to our use only what
suits us.
48
In contemplation as in action, we must distinguish between what may be
attained and what is unattainable. Without this, little can be achieved,
either in life or in knowledge.
49
_'Le sense commun est le génie de l'humanité.'_
Common-sense, which is here put forward as the genius of humanity, must
be examined first of all in the way it shows itself. If we inquire the
purpose to which humanity puts it, we find as follows: Humanity is
conditioned by needs. If they are not satisfied, men become impatient;
and if they are, it seems not to affect them. The normal man moves
between these two states, and he applies his understanding--his
so-called common-sense--to the satisfaction of his needs. When his needs
are satisfied, his task is to fill up the waste spaces of indifference.
Here, too, he is successful, if his needs are confined to what is