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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Quotes
1729–1781 Germany
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature.
Germany Philosophers Playwrights Poets Theologians Also known as: Gotthold Lessing, Lessing
Random Gotthold Ephraim Lessing quote
26 quotes
The worst of superstitions is to think
Nathan the Wise (1779)
The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth.
Anti-Goeze (1778)
Nothing under the sun is accidental, least of all that of which the intention is so clearly evident.
Emilia Galotti (1772)
I have always said it—Nature meant woman to be her masterpiece.
Man, whence is he?
Trust no friend without faults, and love a maiden, but no angel.
Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899)
It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales.
Nathan der Weise (1779)
The real beggar is indeed the true and only king.
Nathan der Weise (1779)
Borrowing is not much better than begging.
Nathan der Weise (1779)
For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.
What could a woman's head contrive
Precisely the way on which the species reaches its perfection, every individual human being (one earlier, one later) must have traversed, too.
When the heart dares to speak, it needs no preparation.
Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud.
Anti-Goeze (1778)
It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.
For the will and not the gift makes the giver.
What is a hero without love for mankind?
Struggle against it as thou wilt, yet Heaven's ways are Heaven's ways.
The eye of Paul Pry often finds more than he wished to find.
I, who ne'er
Nathan the Wise (1779)
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