All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
A plant is like a self-willed man, out of whom we can obtain all which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way.
Interpretation
Plants, like people, thrive best when treated according to their inherent nature and needs.
In this quote, Goethe compares a plant's growth and well-being to that of a self-willed person. He suggests that just as each individual has their own unique needs and preferences, so do plants, and by understanding and respecting these, we can cultivate and nurture them to fulfill our desires, whether they be beauty, food, or companionship. This reflects a deeper philosophy of recognizing and honoring the individuality in all living beings.
In practice
In a garden club presentation about sustainable practices.
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.
To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.
The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades.
O Earth, that hast no voice, confide to me a voice!_x000D_ _x000D_ O harvest of my lands! O boundless summer growths!_x000D_ _x000D_ O lavish, brown, parturient earth! O infinite, teeming womb!_x000D_ _x000D_ A verse to seek, to see, to narrate thee.
Possibly everyone will travel by air in another fifty years. I'm not sure I like the idea of millions of planes flying around overhead. I love the sky's unbroken solitude. I don't like to think of it cluttered up by aircraft, as roads are cluttered up by cars. I feel like the western pioneer when he saw barbed-wire fence lines encroaching on his open plains. The success of his venture brought the end of the life he loved.
Harvest moon: around the pond I wander and the night is gone.
That afternoon the sky was scattered with black clouds galloping in from the sea and clustering over the city. Flashes of lightening echoed on the horizon and a charged warm wind smelling of dust announced a powerful summer storm. When I reached the station I noticed the first few drops, shiny and heavy, like coins falling from heaven...Night seemed to fall suddenly, interrupted only by the lightning now bursting over the city, leaving a trail of noise and fury.
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