All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Every offense is avenged on earth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that every wrongdoing eventually has consequences that manifest in this world.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's quote implies that all wrongs will eventually be rectified or punished within the earthly realm. It speaks to the moral law of balance, where every offense begets a response, thus highlighting the interconnected nature of actions and their repercussions in life. This serves as a reminder of the ethical responsibility individuals have towards one another and the inevitability of facing the consequences of one's actions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethics among friends, one might say, 'Every offense is avenged on earth' to emphasize the importance of accountability.
More from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
All quotes βDestiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
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!
Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
Similar quotes
Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable-and unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "No."
Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest - thought, action - is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go.
Of all the things that oppress me, this sense of the evil working of nature herself -my disgust at her barbarity -clumsiness -darkness -bitter mockery of herself -is the most desolating.
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
God is concerned about everything that concerns us - without exception.
I am not conscious of a single experience throughout my three months' stay in England and Europe that made me feel that after all East is East and West is West. On the contrary, I have been convinced more than ever that human nature is much the same, no matter under what clime it flourishes, and that if you approached people with trust and affection you would have ten-fold trust and thousand-fold affection returned to you.