quote · Source-linked selection
The mechanical occupations of man, the watching any object, as it were, coming into existence by manual labour, is a very pleasant way of passing one's time, but our own activity is at the moment nil. It is almost the same as with smoking tobacco.
The mechanical occupations of man, the watching any object, as it were, coming into existence by manual labour, is a very pleasant way of passing one's time, but our own activity is at the moment nil. It is almost the same as with smoking tobacco.
Approximate author period: c. 1790 AD · early modern
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Goethe
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1790 AD · early modern
author lifetime midpoint (1749–1832)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Dictionary of Quotations (1893) (1893 AD)
Printed citation: Goethe. · page_441
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
The voice behind the words.
Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.
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