All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Strike the dog dead, it's but a critic!
Interpretation
What this quote means
Critics should not be taken too seriously, as they often lack the capability to create themselves.
This quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe suggests that critics are often unworthy of serious consideration, likening them to a 'dog' that is dead and no longer has any power. In the context of creative pursuits, it implies that one should not be deterred by criticism, especially from those who do not engage in the creative process themselves. It serves as a reminder to focus on one's own passions and endeavors rather than the opinions of naysayers.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
When discussing artistic creation, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of personal expression over outside criticism.
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
Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don't have the strength to fight it.
A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the fact that they translate these common ideas into common practices, is what is called a Church. In all history, we do not find a single religion without a Church.
Culture hides much more than it reveals, and strangely enough, what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants.
What is it that you contain? The Dead. Time. Light patterns of millennia. The expanding universe opening in your gut. Are your twenty-three feet of intestines loaded with stars?
So, you are very welcome to our house. It must appear in other ways than words, Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy.
Now let us find solace in the finished work of our Lord Jesus. Everything is fully done: justice demands no more.