Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/131

★ 121 ★ how relative going-out and going-in are. What we call going-in is actually going-out, a reacceptance of the original form.

46. ​​Couldn't something be said regarding the everyday people who have been so maligned recently? Doesn't the greatest power belong to persistent mediocrity? And should a person be more than just one of the popolo?

47. Wherever there is a real inclination to reflect, not just to think this or that thought, there is also progressivity. Very many scholars do not have this inclination. They have learned to conclude and to infer, like a cobbler's shoemaking, without ever having an idea or trying to find the reason for a thought. Nevertheless, there is no other way to well-being. For many, this inclination only lasts a short while. It develops and then over the years declines, frequently with the discovery of a system that they only sought out to be further relieved from the trouble of cogitating.

48. Error and prejudice are burdens, an indirect agent of stimulation for the self-directed, who are equal to any burden. For the weak they are positively debilitating agents.

49. The people is an idea. We should become one people. A perfect person is a microcosm of the people. Real popularity is humanity's ultimate goal.

50. Every stage of education begins with childhood. Thus, the most educated, wordly person is very similar to the child.

51. Every beloved object is the center of a paradise.

52. The interesting thing is what sets me in motion, not for my own sake, but only as an agent, as a part,