Thought for the day

Or the thought for a lifetime, wouldn't you agree?


“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration,
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides
whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,
and a person humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be,
we help them become what they
are capable of becoming.”

Johann Wolfgang Goethe
(28 August 1749 - 22 March 1832)
German poet, novelist, theorist, painter, natural scientist and long-serving government minister of the duchy of Weimar


PS There seemed to be some confusion on the web over the original author of this quote, but it seems that this explanation rings true.