Ray > Ray's Quotes

“Oh, distance is like the future: before our souls lies an entire day and dusky vastness which overwhelms our feelings as it overwhelms our eyes, and ah! we long to surrender the whole of our being, and be filled with all the joy of one single, immense, magnificent emotion. And then, ah! once we hasten onwards, and what lay ahead becomes the here and now, everything is just as it was, and there we are, as poor and confined as ever, our souls longing for the elusive balm.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Dear Wilhelm, I have thought a great deal about Man's desire to go out into the world, make new discoveries and go a-wandering, and, on the other hand, about that deep-seated impulse to be contented with limits that are imposed, and gladly to proceed as custom dictates, with no interest in what goes beyond the daily round.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“I withdraw into myself, and discover a world, albeit a notional world of dark desire rather than one of actuality and vital strength. And everything swims before my senses, and I go my way in the world wearing the smile of the dreamer.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther