“ we so continually feel our own imperfections, and fancy we perceive in others the qualities we do not possess, attributing to them also all that we enjoy ourselves, that by this process we form the idea of a perfect, happy man,—a man, however, who only exists in our own imagination. ”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). copy citation
| Author | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
|---|---|
| Source | The Sorrows of Young Werther |
| Topic | imagination imperfection |
| Date | 1774 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by R. D. Boylan |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2527/2527-h/2527-h.htm |
Context
“there our imagination, always disposed to rise, taking a new flight on the wings of fancy, pictures to us a chain of beings of whom we seem the most inferior. All things appear greater than they really are, and all seem superior to us. This operation of the mind is quite natural: we so continually feel our own imperfections, and fancy we perceive in others the qualities we do not possess, attributing to them also all that we enjoy ourselves, that by this process we form the idea of a perfect, happy man,—a man, however, who only exists in our own imagination.
But when, in spite of weakness and disappointments, we set to work in earnest, and persevere steadily, we often find, that, though obliged continually to tack, we make more way than others who have the assistance of wind and tide;”
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