If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

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About This Quote

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood and divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. This saying comes from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. It’s a sad story.

The young man who wrote it, Werther, is deeply in love with a girl named Lotte. They meet and fall in love, but she doesn’t return his feelings. He commits suicide after she rejects him.

The story ends with this piece of advice: “What matters is to live so that we can die happy.”

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