Meaning of “If goodness lead him not, yet weariness May…”

Indian Summer of a Forsyte, represented in Project Gutenberg #2594. Irene says the line to old Jolyon while speaking about her dead lover; it is emotionally charged fictional dialogue, and the surrounding conversation immediately gives old Jolyon a more ironic response.

Pippa Passes (1841), represented in the Project Gutenberg Robert Browning works edition #59123. The lyric is sung by Pippa inside a verse drama; its Christian optimism is a character-song within the play, not a factual guarantee that every event is good.

The Madman, parable of the pomegranate; one voice insists that life without future possibility would feel diminished.

“To a Waterfowl,” represented in Project Gutenberg #29700. The closing lines explicitly infer providential guidance from the bird’s flight; the claim remains Christian-inflected lyric reflection, not evidence about supernatural intervention.

The Twilight of the Idols, “Maxims and Missiles,” maxim 12, Anthony M. Ludovici translation, Project Gutenberg #52263. This is Nietzsche’s represented wording; later paraphrases such as “He who has a why…” should not be silently substituted for it.

The Consolation of Philosophy, Book III, Chapter XI, H. R. James translation (Elliot Stock, 1897), printed page 149 in Project Gutenberg #14328. Lady Philosophy reaches ‘All things, then, seek the good’ after arguing that things naturally seek continued existence and unity, and that unity and goodness are the same. This remains late-antique metaphysical/philosophical argument mediated by translation, not an empirical description of every human motive or modern behavioral science.