Drum prüfe, wer sich ewig bindet, / Ob sich das Herz zum Herzen findet! / Der Wahn ist kurz, die Reu ist lang. So whoever binds himself forever should test whether heart finds heart. The illusion is short, the regret is long. The lines come from Friedrich Schiller’s Das Lied von der Glocke, The Song of the Bell, first printed in the Musen-Almanach for the year 1800. In the poem they are about marriage. Germans quote the first line for any commitment that is meant to last, such as a partnership, a long contract or a large purchase.