Tao Te Ching
Faust, part I
By Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe’s famous story based on a classic German legend describes the universal temptation to sacrifice integrity for fame, fortune, pleasure, and power. He worked on this version on-and-off for over 60 years and Part 2 wasn’t published until after he died. Modern psychology uses this symbolism to explain how people sacrifice their authenticity with defense mechanisms and descent into both neurotic and psychotic patterns instead of living with the painful edges of reality. Part 1 tells the story of Faust’s desires and pleasure seeking rising and then falling into despair and tragedy. In Part 2, Faust’s striving spreads into the political and religious realms and chronicles his successful altruism, forgiveness, and redemption brought about by the feminine principle, by what Goethe called “Eternal Womanhood.”
Quotes from Faust, part I
“All theory is gray, my friend. But forever green is the tree of life.”
Chapters:
12. This Over That
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“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
Chapters:
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“It is unthinkable that wisdom should ever be popular.”
Chapters:
41. Distilled Life
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“No revolution is the fault of the people but always the fault of the government.”
Chapters:
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“The few, who have known somewhat of these things, who foolishly did not keep a guard over their full hearts, who revealed their feelings and thoughts to the people, these, from time immemorial, have been crucified and burned.”
Chapters:
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“Try novelties for salesman's bait, novelty wins everyone.”
Chapters:
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“Two souls, alas! reside within my breast,
And each withdraws from, and repels, its brother.”
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Quotes about Faust, part I (2 quotes)
“Faust—as I now realized with something of a shock—meant more to me than my beloved Gospel according to St. John. There was something in Faust that worked directly on my feelings... I was convinced that he was the answer which Goethe had given to his times.”
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“Faust, in Part I, is individualism incarnate; in Part II he finds 'salvation,' health of soul, through working for the general good... [Goethe] as he matured through political office perceived that human life is a co-operative process; that the individual survives by mutual aid, and that self-seeking actions, though still the basic force, must be limited by the needs of the group.”
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