Goethe - Epigrams on Defects, Strengths, Ignorance, Suffering and Satisfaction

• By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect.
• Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
• Man . . . knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.