quote · Source-linked selection
What a road had human nature to traverse before it reached the point of being mild to the guilty, merciful to the injurious, and humane to the inhuman! Doubtless they were men of godlike souls who first taught this, who spent their lives in rendering the practice of this possible, and recommending it to others.
What a road had human nature to traverse before it reached the point of being mild to the guilty, merciful to the injurious, and humane to the inhuman! Doubtless they were men of godlike souls who first taught this, who spent their lives in rendering the practice of this possible, and recommending it to others.
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_533
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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