In 2022 the Allensbach Institute asked Germans whether they agree with this statement: Jeder ist seines Glückes Schmied. Wer sich heute wirklich anstrengt, der kann es auch zu etwas bringen. Everyone is the smith of his own fortune. Whoever really makes an effort today can achieve something. 51 percent of the population agreed. Among people aged 16 to 29, almost two thirds agreed. In the population as a whole, just under a third held the opposite view.
aphorisms
Everyone Sweep Before Their Own Door
Goethe wrote a short verse called Bürgerpflicht, civic duty. Ein jeder kehre vor seiner Tür. / Und rein ist jedes Stadtquartier. / Ein jeder übe sein’ Lektion, / So wird es gut im Rate stohn! Let everyone sweep before his own door, and every quarter of the town is clean. Let everyone practice his own lesson, and all will be well in the council. The first line became a common saying.
Buying Cheap Twice
Wer billig kauft, kauft zweimal. — Whoever buys cheap buys twice.
Qualität hat ihren Preis. — Quality has its price.
Qualität setzt sich durch. — Quality prevails.
Not in the Files, Not in the World
Quod non est in actis, non est in mundo. What is not in the files is not in the world. In German the maxim reads Was nicht in den Akten ist, ist nicht in der Welt. It comes from written court procedure, in which nothing could be considered that was not in the court files. Berlin’s administration puts the same idea in a handbook for its officials. They must keep files and darin ihr Handeln vollständig, nachvollziehbar und transparent dokumentieren, document their actions in them completely, traceably and transparently. In 2017 the legal journalist Martin Rath called the maxim eine billige Weisheit, a cheap wisdom. He also wrote that the file is a Mittel der Vernunft, an instrument of reason.
Sayings About Mastery
Übung macht den Meister. — Practice makes the master.
Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen. — No master has yet fallen from the sky. Said to comfort a beginner.
Handwerk hat goldenen Boden. — A craft has a golden floor. A trade gives a secure living.
Half the Diagnosis
Before a German doctor examines a patient, there is the Anamnese, the systematic questioning of the patient about complaints and medical history. German health guides repeat the line that the case history is half the diagnosis. The health insurer Techniker Krankenkasse writes: “Eine sorgfältige Anamnese ist dabei die halbe Diagnose.” A careful case history is half the diagnosis.
The Will to a System
Ich mißtraue allen Systematikern und gehe ihnen aus dem Weg. Der Wille zum System ist ein Mangel an Rechtschaffenheit. I distrust all systematizers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote this in Götzen-Dämmerung, Twilight of the Idols.
Something Learned Every Day
The Göttingen physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg wrote in one of his notebooks: Man sollte sich nicht schlafen legen, ohne sagen zu können, daß man an dem Tage etwas gelernt hätte. (One should not go to sleep without being able to say that one has learned something that day.) He did not mean a new word. He meant, among other things, the Verbesserung eines Irrtums, in dem wir uns lange befunden haben, the correction of an error we have long held. This could not be done quickly before blowing out the candle. The occupations of the whole day had to aim at it.
In the same notebook stands his much-quoted line about change: Ich kann freilich nicht sagen, ob es besser werden wird wenn es anders wird; aber so viel kann ich sagen, es muß anders werden, wenn es gut werden soll. (I certainly cannot say whether it will get better if it gets different. But this much I can say: it must get different if it is to get good.)
Doubt Everything at Least Once
The physicist and writer Georg Christoph Lichtenberg kept notebooks that he called Sudelbücher, waste books. In one of them he wrote: Zweifle an allem wenigstens einmal, und wäre es auch der Satz: zweimal 2 ist 4. (Doubt everything at least once, even if it is the sentence: two times two is four.)
What Decides Is on the Pitch
Grau is’ im Leben alle Theorie – aber entscheidend is’ auf’m Platz. All theory in life is gray, but what decides is on the pitch. The saying is credited to Adi Preißler, who won the German championship with Borussia Dortmund in 1956 and 1957. Its first half echoes Goethe’s Faust: Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie. The second half, entscheidend is auf’m Platz, is in everyday use. It means that talk and plans count for little until the performance shows what they are worth.