The world is a bell that is cracked: it clatters, but does not ring out clearly.
• Maxim 193, trans. Stopp
• Maxim 193, trans. Stopp
“
Die Welt ist eine Glocke, die einen Riß hat: sie klappert, aber klingt nicht.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Die Welt ist eine Glocke, die einen Riß hat: sie klappert, aber klingt nicht." in the context of "The world is a bell that is cracked: it clatters, but does not ring out clearly.
• Maxim 193, trans. Stopp" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe" (Quotes, Maxims and Reflections (1833): Full text in German. Translation by Elisabeth Stopp (Penguin, 1998) follows Max Hecker's canonical German edition (1907). Bailey Saunders' selection, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1893), translates 590 of Goethe's 1413 maxims.)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,