Maxim 504, trans. Stopp
“
Everything that liberates our mind without at the same time imparting self-control is pernicious.
• Variant translation: Everything that emancipates the spirit without giving us control over ourselves is harmful.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Everything that liberates our mind without at the same time imparting self-control is pernicious.
• Variant translation: Everything that emancipates the spirit without giving us control over ourselves is harmful." in the context of "Maxim 504, 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
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About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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