In the study scene of Goethe’s Faust I, a new student asks Mephistopheles for advice. Mephistopheles tells him: Im ganzen – haltet Euch an Worte! On the whole, keep to words! The student objects: Doch ein Begriff muß bei dem Worte sein. But there must be a concept behind the word. Mephistopheles answers: Denn eben wo Begriffe fehlen, / Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein. For just where concepts are missing, a word turns up at the right moment. Mit Worten läßt sich trefflich streiten, / Mit Worten ein System bereiten. With words one can argue splendidly, and with words one can build a system. The advice comes from the devil.
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Faith in the Bundesbank
The Bundesbank keeps a collection of what others have said about it. One entry is attributed to Jacques Delors, then President of the European Commission, in 1992. Nicht alle Deutschen glauben an Gott, aber alle (glauben) an die Bundesbank. Not all Germans believe in God, but they all believe in the Bundesbank. The collection gives the year but no occasion. Another entry quotes Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of 26 June 1997. Als Bundeskanzler habe ich manchmal Probleme mit der Bundesbank. Als Bürger bin ich froh, dass es sie gibt. As chancellor, I sometimes have problems with the Bundesbank. As a citizen, I am glad that it exists.
Do Not Hunt for Friends
Adolph Freiherr Knigge published Über den Umgang mit Menschen, On Dealing with People, in 1788. In his chapter on dealing with friends, he gives this advice. Werbe nicht ängstlich um Freunde. Mache nicht Jagd auf jeden guten Mann, daß er Dir besonders zugetan werden soll. Do not court friends anxiously. Do not hunt every good man so that he will become especially attached to you. He gives a reason. Jede Art von Andringlichkeit, wäre sie auch noch so gut gemeint, pflegt in dieser Welt Verdacht zu erwecken. Every kind of pushiness, however well meant, tends to arouse suspicion in this world. A man who quietly follows the path of honesty and good sense does not stay unnoticed. Er findet planlos ein paar Edle, die ihm die Hand zum brüderlichen Bunde reichen. Without any plan, he finds a few noble people who offer him their hand in a brotherly bond.
A Bushel of Salt
In Goethe’s verse epic Hermann und Dorothea, published in 1797, young Hermann wants to marry a refugee girl. In the sixth canto, the town apothecary urges caution. Trüget doch öfter der Schein! Ich mag dem Äußern nicht trauen. Appearances often deceive. I do not like to trust the outside. He cites a proverb that he has often found to be true. Eh’ du den Scheffel Salz mit dem neuen Bekannten verzehret, / Darfst du nicht leichtlich ihm trauen; dich macht die Zeit nur gewisser, / Wie du es habest mit ihm und wie die Freundschaft bestehe. Before you have eaten a bushel of salt with a new acquaintance, you should not trust him easily. Only time makes you more certain where you stand with him and how firm the friendship is. Then he proposes to ask good people who know the girl.
Do Not Waste Energy
Vergeude keine Energie, verwerte sie! Do not waste energy, use it! The sentence is known as the energetic imperative of the chemist Wilhelm Ostwald. It was meant as a general basic law of technology.
Whoever Sets the Standard
Wer die Norm setzt, macht den Markt. Whoever sets the standard makes the market. Klaus Wucherer, a member of the Siemens managing board, said it in September 2006, at the opening of a world congress of the electrical and IT industry. In 2007 the director of DIN, Torsten Bahke, said: Wer den Standard setzt, hat den Markt.
A version of the saying is often attributed to Werner von Siemens. No source for that attribution has been found. In 2012 Werner Fischer, who headed standardization at Siemens, put the thought another way. Wenn wir nicht normen, dann werden wir genormt. If we do not set standards, standards will be set for us.
Judgment Can Only Be Practiced
In the Critique of Pure Reason of 1781, Immanuel Kant separates knowing rules from applying them. The understanding, he writes, can be taught and equipped with rules. Judgment, however, is ein besonderes Talent …, welches gar nicht belehrt, sondern nur geübt sein will, a special talent that cannot be taught at all, only practiced.
A doctor, a judge or a statesman, Kant writes, can have many fine rules in his head and still easily go wrong in applying them. He may see the general in the abstract and not be able to tell whether a case in the concrete belongs under it. Or he has not been trained enough durch Beispiele und wirkliche Geschäfte, through examples and real business. Examples, Kant concludes, sharpen judgment.
In a footnote he adds: Der Mangel an Urteilskraft ist eigentlich das, was man Dummheit nennt. The lack of judgment is really what one calls stupidity.
Quality Is When the Customer Comes Back
Qualität ist, wenn der Kunde zurückkommt – nicht das Produkt. Quality is when the customer comes back, not the product. A 2025 article about Porsche Consulting quoted it as a saying attributed to the founder of a traditional German department store chain. The article does not name him.
The same article then turned to process. Nicht nur das fehlerfreie Produkt zählt, sondern vor allem der Umgang mit Fehlern. Not only the faultless product counts, but above all the way errors are handled.
Not Even Two Minutes
Before the 2024 European Championship, the national coach Julian Nagelsmann told Mats Hummels that he would not be in the squad. Hummels later described the talk to the newspaper Sport Bild: Nicht einmal zwei Minuten. Not even two minutes.
He called it short and disappointing. Then he added: Ich brauche in solchen Momenten aber auch kein langes Gespräch und keine große Erklärung. Das hat mir gereicht. But in such moments I need no long talk and no big explanation. That was enough for me. As he understood it, the reasons were related to age, such as fitness.
Kant’s Jewel
In 1785 Immanuel Kant published the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. In its first section he writes that the good will is good not through what it brings about or achieves, sondern allein durch das Wollen, but only through its willing. Kant imagines a good will that achieves nothing despite its greatest effort. Then, he writes, so würde er wie ein Juwel doch für sich selbst glänzen, it would still shine like a jewel by its own light, as something that has its full worth in itself. Its usefulness or fruitlessness can neither add to this worth nor take anything from it.