‘Wenn wir sagtest Du,’ die Menschen nur nehmen, ‘wie sie sind, so machen wir sie schlechter; wenn wir sie behandeln als wären sie, was sie sein sollten, so bringen wir sie dahin, wohin sie zu bringen sind.’

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "‘Wenn wir sagtest Du,’ die Menschen nur nehmen, ‘wie sie sind, so machen wir sie schlechter; wenn wir sie behandeln als wären sie, was sie sein sollten, so bringen wir sie dahin, wohin sie zu bringen sind.’" in the context of "‘When we take people,’ thou wouldst say, ‘merely as they are, we make them worse; when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve them as far as they can be improved.’
 • Bk. VIII, Ch. 4. Translation by Thomas Carlyle in Wilhem Meister's Apprenticeship. Vol. XIV. Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1917.
• Variant translations:
 • When we take men only as they are, we make them worse; when we treat them as if they were what they ought to be, we bring them to the point to which they are to be brought.
  • As quoted in The Irish Monthly: A Magazine of General Literature (1881), Winged Words, pp. 163-164, M. H. Gill & Son, Dublin.
 • If we treat people as if they were what they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”
  • As quoted in The Honolulu Advertiser, The Mature Parent: Friendless Nick Needs Reassurance, 29 October 1956, Not Pity by Mrs. Muriel Lawrence, Quote Page A7, Column 2, Honolulu, Hawaii." to mean that wisdom is timeless.