"The best slave is the one who..." - Quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.
More by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern; and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.”
“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”
“Yet he who grasps the moment's gift, He is the proper man.”
More on Freedom
“Of the truly creative no one is ever master; it must be left to go its own way.”
“Only in community with others has each individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible.”
“Thought is more than a right - it is the very breath of man. Whoever fetters thought attacks man himself. To speak, to write, to publish, are things, so far as the right is concerned, absolutely identical. They are the ever-enlarging circles of intelligence in action; they are the sonorous waves of thought.”
More on Self Deception
“The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear - I fear greatly - the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, even more loudly, even more widely.”
“We take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy than in endeavoring to think so ourselves”