| |
| A fool always accuses other people; a partially wise man himself; a wholly wise man, neither himself nor others. | 1 |
| An nichts Geliebtes muszt du dein Gemüt / Also verpfänden, dass dich sein Verlust / Untröstbar machte—Never so set your heart on what you love that its loss may render you inconsolable. | 2 |
| Arbeit ist des Blutes Balsam: / Arbeit ist der Tugend Quell—Labour is balm to the blood: labour is the source of virtue. | 3 |
| As every great evil, so every excessive power wears itself out at last. | 4 |
| Culture of the thinking, the dispositions (Gesinnungen), and the morals is the only education that deserves the name, not mere instruction. | 5 |
| Eher schätzet man das Gute / Nicht, als bis man es verlor—We do not learn to value our blessings till we have lost them. | 6 |
| Eine schöne Menschenseele finden / Ist Gewinn—It is a true gain to find a beautiful human soul. | 7 |
| Gesetzlose Gewalt ist die furchbarste Schwache—Lawless power is the most frightful weakness. | 8 |
| God is great in what is the greatest and the smallest. | 9 |
| He who serves under reason anticipates necessity. | 10 |
| Im Mangel, nicht im Ueberfluss / Keimt der Genuss—Enjoyment germinates not in abundance but in want. | 11 |
| Individually man is a weak being, but strong in union with others. | 12 |
| Jedes Weibes / Fehler ist des Mannes Schuld—The husband is to blame for the fault of the wife (in every case). | 13 |
| Lass dich nicht verblüffen—Don’t let yourself be disconcerted. | 14 |
| Ohne Begeisterung schlafen die besten Kräfte des Gemüths. Es ist ein Zunder in uns, der Funken will—Without inspiration the best powers of the mind are dormant. There is a tinder in us which needs to be quickened with sparks. | 15 |
| Rühre die Laute nicht, wenn ringums Trommeln erschallen; / Führen Narren das Wort, schweiget der Weisere still—Touch not the lute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent. | 16 |
| Religion is the highest humanity (Humanität) of man. | 17 |
| Say, O wise man, how thou hast come by such knowledge? Because I never was ashamed to confess my ignorance and ask others. | 18 |
| Suche die Wissenschaft als würdest ewig du hier sein, / Tugend, als hielte der Tod dich schon am sträubenden Haar—Seek knowledge, as if thou wert to be here for ever; virtue, as if death already held thee by the bristling hair. | 19 |
| The training (Bildung) of the thinking, of the dispositions and the morals, is the only education that deserves the name. | 20 |
| |
|
|
| |
| They who embrace the entire universe with love, for the most part love nothing but their narrow selves. | 21 |
| Was in dem Herzen Anderer von uns lebt, / Ist unser wahrestes und tiefstes Selbst—What of us lives in the heart of others is our truest and deepest self. | 22 |
| Whoever perseveres will be crowned. | 23 |
| Wie die Blumen die Erd’, und die Sterne den Himmel / Zieren, so zieret Athen Hellas und Hellas die Welt—As the flowers adorn the earth and the stars the sky, so Athens adorns Greece, and Greece the world. | 24 |
| |
