what a torment it is to see so much loveliness passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold of it!
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). copy citation

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Author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source The Sorrows of Young Werther
Topic frustration envy
Date 1774
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by R. D. Boylan
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2527/2527-h/2527-h.htm

Context

“OCTOBER 27: Evening.
I possess so much, but my love for her absorbs it all. I possess so much, but without her I have nothing.
OCTOBER 30.
One hundred times have I been on the point of embracing her. Heavens! what a torment it is to see so much loveliness passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold of it! And laying hold is the most natural of human instincts. Do not children touch everything they see? And I!
NOVEMBER 3.
Witness, Heaven, how often I lie down in my bed with a wish, and even a hope, that I may never awaken again.” source

Meaning and analysis

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