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The value in finding the center of the whole (from Goethe)

Came across these curious quotes from Goethe this week that seem to echo what was said at meeting for worship this past Sunday.

from Torquato Tasso:
O, that we forget so much to follow
The pure and quiet wink of the heart.
Wholly silently, a god speaks in our breast . .

From Years of Wandering

How can the individual stand before the infinite being, unless he

collects all of his spiritual powers, pulled as they are in many di-
rections, in his inmost, deepest being, unless he asks himself: can

you even think of yourself as standing in the middle of this living
order, if something constant and moving in circles about a pure
middle point does not arise in you? And even when it is difficult
to find this middle point in your breast, you will recognize it by
the fact that a benevolent and beneficial effect proceeds from it
and gives witness to it.

From Aphorisms and Fragments

In the human spirit, . . . nothing is above or below, everything de-
mands the same right in terms of a common middle point, whose

secret existence manifests itself precisely in the harmonious rela-
tion of all its moments to it.

From "Study after Spinoza"

[W]hen men construct a whole according to their abilities, . . . the
inner life . . . must become ever simpler, [they] must concentrate
on one point and renounce multiple confusing relations, and only
then can [they] find [themselves] with all the more certainty in a
condition of good fortune that seems a spontaneous and special
gift of God.

Section Title

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