You must be either the servant or the master, the hammer or the anvil.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- You must choose a role—either serving or leading, being passive or active.
- In plain terms
- You’re either a servant or a master, a hammer or an anvil.
- What can you take from it?
- Decide whether to take control or follow.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When have you been the hammer? When the anvil?
- Can you switch roles effectively?
Another view
Sometimes collaboration requires fluid roles, not a binary choice.
More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fo…
Permalink to quote #152 There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.
Permalink to quote #154 When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
Permalink to quote #151
Related quotes
A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They …
Lao TzuLao Tzu quote #9 As soon as you put men together, they somehow sink, corporatively, below the level of the worst of the individuals composing it. Collect scholars on a club com…
Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley quote #71 The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.
Aleksandr PushkinAleksandr Pushkin quote #1