Tao Te Ching
Faust, part II
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. He began this writing process in 1771 when he was only 22 and didn't begin writing Part II until he was 78 years old. 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.
While Part 1— mainly written during Goethe' youth—describes the illusions of soul-selling pleasures and the consequences; in Part II, Goethe began with a lifetime of deeply understood experiences and wisdom. Faust’s striving spreads into the political and religious realms and chronicles his successful altruism, forgiveness, and redemption brought about by the feminine principle—what Goethe called “Eternal Womanhood.”
Quotes from Faust, part II
“Fortunate is he whose world lies in his home.”
Chapters:
47. Effortless Success
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“He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew.”
Chapters:
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“The Eternal Feminine ever draws us upward.”
Chapters:
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“The rainbow mirrors human aims and action. Life is but light in many-hued reflection.”
Chapters:
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“The world has always been the same — an endless farce, an antic game, a universal masquerade!”
Chapters:
5. Christmas Trees
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“Timeless wisdom draws us on”
Chapters:
8. Like Water
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Chapters:
1. The Unnamed
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Quotes about Faust, part II (2 quotes)
“The second part of Faust was more than a literary exercise. It is a link in the Aurea Catena [the Golden or Homeric Chian] which has existed from the beginnings of philosophical alchemy... Unpopular, ambiguous, and dangerous, it is a voyage of discovery to the other pole of the world.”
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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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