The Sorrows of Young Werther BOOK TWO, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• 20 October
• Patience! Patience! All will improve. And I tell you, my dear fellow, you were right. I feel far better within myself now that I am among these people, kept busy day in, day out, watching their doings and goings-on.
• It is true that, since we are so constituted as to be forever comparing ourselves with others and our surroundings with ourselves, our happiness or misery depends on the things in our environment; and, this being so, nothing is more dangerous than solitude.
• 26 November
• I have struck up an acquaintance with Count C., whom I esteem more highly every day, a man of great learning and mature judgment but by no means cold, thanks to his broad understanding; in his company I feel that he is very sensitive to friendship and love.
• 24 December
• The count, I said, was a man deserving of respect, for his character and for his knowledge. 'I have never met anyone,' I said, ' who has succeeded so well in broadening the horizons of his spirit, and extending his knowledge in countless areas, and still turning his hand to the affairs of everyday life.'
• And it is all your fault, for talking me into this yoke and singing the praises of a busy life!
• I am, however, growing daily more aware how foolish it is to judge others by one's own standards, dear friend. And since I give myself enough trouble as it is, and this heart of mine is so turbulent--ah, I am glad to let others go their own ways. If only they would allow me to do the same.
• The old lady's physiognomy was off-putting. I paid a great deal of attention to her and addressed most of my conversation to her, and in less than half an hour I could see for myself what the young lady afterwards admitted to me herself: that her dear aunt has been left lacking everything in her old age, and has no presentable fortune or wits, no source of strength other than her pedigree, no protection but the sense of class in which she has barricaded herself, and no pleasure apart from looking down on middle-class citizens from the heights of an upper-story window.