Goethe was right when he said that “A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” What you see in others is mostly a reflection of yourself. Before you judge what you see in others, ask what it might be revealing in you.

Russia will close branches of Germany’s Goethe Institut in retaliation for the country’s decision to shut the Russian House cultural center in Berlin as well as a consulate in Bonn

Degas modeled La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans in 1881 from Marie van Goethem, a real fourteen-year-old ballet student at the Paris Opera. He cast her in wax with real hair, a muslin tutu, and satin slippers — not polished marble. Critics called it ugly and even obscene because it looked like a living girl in the gallery instead of an idealized classical figure. Degas was rejecting the tradition on purpose. There’s a darker undertone too: the Opera’s ballet school had a reputation as a pipeline where young dancers were sometimes recruited by wealthy patrons, and the sculpture sits right at that line between innocence and exploitation. That’s why it still unsettles people a hundred forty years later.

⚡️ In response to Germany’s unfriendly actions, Russia is taking retaliatory measures: – Germany’s Consulate General in St Petersburg must close by September 18, 2026; – Goethe-Institut cultural centres in Russia must cease operations.