All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
The child, offered the mother's breast, Will not in the beginning grab it; But soon it clings to it with zest. And thus at wisdom's copious breasts You'll drink each day with greater zest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the natural progression of learning and attachment, suggesting that wisdom is initially approached with hesitation but becomes deeply embraced over time.
Goethe's quote metaphorically compares the initial rejection of wisdom to a child's reluctance to take its mother's breast. It illustrates how, like a child that eventually clings to its mother's nourishment with eagerness, individuals may initially struggle with or resist wisdom but will ultimately come to appreciate and seek it out passionately as they grow and learn.
Themes
WisdomLearningGrowthUnderstandingKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
During a keynote speech on education, you might quote this to emphasize the importance of nurturing a love for learning.
More from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
All quotes →Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Similar quotes
The greatest lesson of life is that you are responsible for your life.
Oprah WinfreyRead
Women are real. Our reality covers the whole human megillah, from feeble to fierce, from bad to good, from endangered to dangerous. We don't just deserve power, we have it. And power in this and every other society is not just the capacity to benefit those around us.
Katherine DunnRead
Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.
Alexandre DumasRead
An ad hominem attack against an individual, not against an idea, is highly flattering. It indicates that the person does not have anything intelligent to say about your message.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
My interest in well-being evolved from my interest in decision making - from raising the question of whether people know what they will want in the future and whether the things that people want for themselves will make them happy.
Daniel KahnemanRead