Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden.
Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken.
• Variant: All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience. " - Meaning and context.">
All intelligent thoughts have already been thought;
what is necessary is only to try to think them again.
  • Bk. II, Observations in the Mindset of the Wanderer: Art, Ethics, Nature

Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden.
Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken.

• Variant: All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden.
Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken.

• Variant: All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience. " in the context of "All intelligent thoughts have already been thought;
what is necessary is only to try to think them again.
  • Bk. II, Observations in the Mindset of the Wanderer: Art, Ethics, Nature" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe" (Quotes, Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre (Journeyman Years) (1821–1829)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,