"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
"What am I then...? Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished by countless different individuals, by innocent and wise ones, people of intelligence and dunces. Childhood, maturity and old age all have brought me their thoughts....their perspectives on life. I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name Goethe."
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Source: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1842). “Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels”, p.78
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