Maxims and Reflections · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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There is no limit to the increase of experience, but theories cannot become clearer and more complete in just the same sense. The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of the human faculties. Hence there is no way of looking at the world, but it recurs, and the curious thing happens, that with increased experience a limited theory may again come into favour. It is always the same world which stands open to observation, which is continually being contemplated or guessed at; and it is always the same men who live in the true or in the false; more at their ease in the latter than in the former. Truth is at variance with our natures, but not so error; and for a very simple reason. Truth requires us to recognise ourselves as limited, but error flatters us with the belief that in one way or another we are subject to no bounds at all. That some men think they can still do what they have been able to do, is natural enough; that others think they can do what they have never been able to do, is singular, but not rare. At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which put Socrates to death by poison, the age which burnt Huss. The ages have always remained alike.
That is true Symbolism, where the more particular represents the more general, not as a dream or shade, but as a vivid, instantaneous revelation of the Inscrutable. Everything of an abstract or symbolic nature, as soon as it is challenged by realities, ends by consuming them and itself. So credit consumes both money and itself. Mastery often passes for egoism. With Protestants, as soon as good works cease and their merit is denied, sentimentality takes their place. If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself. The use of mottoes is to indicate something we have not attained, but strive to attain. It is right to keep them always before our eyes. 'If a man cannot lift a stone himself, let him leave it, even though he has some one to help him.' Despotism promotes general self-government, because from top to bottom it makes the individual responsible, and so produces the highest degree of activity. A man must pay dear for his errors if he wishes to get rid of them, and even then he is lucky. Enthusiasm is of the greatest value, so long as we are not carried away by it. School itself is the only true preparation for it. Error is related to truth as sleep to waking. I have observed that on awakening from error a man turns again to truth as with new vigour.
Every one suffers who does not work for himself. A man works for others to have them share in his joy. Men's prejudices rest upon their character for the time being and cannot be overcome, as being part and parcel of themselves. Neither evidence nor common-sense nor reason has the slightest influence upon them. Characters often make a law of their failings. Men who know the world have said that when prudence is only fear in disguise, its scruples cannot be conquered. The weak often have revolutionary sentiments; they think they would be well off if they were not ruled, and fail to perceive that they can rule neither themselves nor others. Common-sense is born pure in the healthy man, is self-developed, and is revealed by a resolute perception and recognition of what is necessary and useful. Practical men and women avail themselves of it with confidence. Where it is absent, both sexes find anything necessary when they desire it, and useful when it gives them pleasure. All men, as they attain freedom, give play to their errors. The strong do too much, and the weak too little.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.