Realism“Every stage of life corresponds to a certain philosophy. A child appears a realist; for it is as certain of the existence of pears and apples as it is of its own being.Goethe (age 9) 75ns
(age 9)
Goethe (age 15) 75
(age 15)
IdealismA young man, caught up in the storm of his inner passions, has to pay attention to himself, look and feel ahead; he is transformed into an idealist.Goethe (age 24)
(age 24)
Goethe (age 38)
(age 38)
SkepticismA grown man, on the other hand, has every reason to be a skeptic; he is well advised to doubt whether the means he has chosen to achieve his purpose can really be right. Before action and in the course of action he has every reason to keep his mind flexible so that he will not have to grieve later on about a wrong choice.Goethe (age 42)
(age 42)
Goethe (age 59) 75 color (new)
(age 59)
MysticismAn old man, however, will always avow mysticism. He sees that so much seems to depend on chance: unreason succeeds, reason fails, fortune and misfortune unexpectedly come to the same thing in the end; this is how things are, how they were, and old age comes to rest in him who is, who was and ever will be.”Goethe (age 69)
(age 69)
Goethe (age 81)
(age 81)
In philosophy, stages of existence refers to the various states of perceptual existence a person as a bound state atomic entity pass through in their reaction existence.

The adjacent excerpt by German polyintellect Johann Goethe, from his posthumously-published 1833 Maxims and Reflections, is said to depict how his philosophical views changed as he stepped through the various stages of existence, in retrospect (see: Goethe timeline). [1]

Other
The following end stage four quote by Goethe:

“... in him who is, who was and ever will be.”

seems to have been re-written into the following re-phrased format by English screenwriter Bernard Rose in the 1994 film Immortal Beloved: [3]

“Thus he was, thus he died, thus he will live for all time.”
— Anton Schindler (1994), Immortal Beloved

on the reaction existence and reaction end of Ludwig Beethoven; the assertion here being that Rose had read or was somehow aware of Goethe's stages of existence quote, being that he already had incorporated the famous 1812 so-called "incident at Teplitz" scene, during the time when Goethe spent four days visiting with Beethoven, in the film.

Quotes
The following are related quotes:

“What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel; what you can taste; what you can smell and see; then real is simply electrical signals being interpreted by your brain.”
— Morpheus (1999), The Matrix [2]

References
1. Goethe, Johann. (1833). Maxims and Reflections (translator: Elisabeth Stopp). Publisher.
2. Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (pg. xix). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
3. Rose, Bernard. (1994). Immortal Beloved (4:17). Columbia Pictures.

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