All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.
Interpretation
Life is shaped by our circumstances, yet we have the freedom to shape our inner selves and find peace.
This quote emphasizes the duality of existence, where we are often restricted by external circumstances throughout our lives. Despite these constraints, it suggests that true freedom lies in the ability to cultivate our inner beings in alignment with a higher moral order, allowing us to achieve inner peace regardless of the challenges we face.
In practice
During a motivational speech about resilience against life's challenges.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Destiny 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.
It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.
History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.
I think all of us, under certain circumstances, could be capable of some very despicable acts. And that's why, over the years, in my movies I've had characters who didn't care what people thought about them. We try to be as true to them as possible and maybe see part of ourselves in there that we may not like.
We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.
He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father.
When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, 'Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.'
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