He who does not speak foreign languages knows nothing about his own.
• Maxim 91
• Maxim 91
“
Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen." in the context of "He who does not speak foreign languages knows nothing about his own.
• Maxim 91" 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,