All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
The worst is that the very hardest thinking will not bring thoughts. They must come like good children of God and cry, "Here we are." You expend effort and energy thinking hard. Then, after you have given up, they come sauntering in with their hands in their pockets. If the effort had not been made to open the door, however, who knows when they could have come.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative ideas often come when we least expect them, especially after we stop forcing them.
This quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe emphasizes the nature of inspiration and creative thought. It suggests that while we may struggle and exert significant effort in trying to think or create, true ideas come naturally, often when we release our pressure to force them. The metaphor of thoughts coming like 'good children of God' implies that creativity is almost a gift that arrives at its own time, and that the initial effort to open ourselves up to possibility is what allows those ideas to come in, even if they often appear unexpectedly and without prompt.
Themes
CreativityInspirationThoughtsEffortIdeas
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a creative writing workshop to encourage students to relax and let ideas flow.
More from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
All quotes →Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
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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!
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Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
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