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We make nothing: we only form and discover what is already there, but which without our assistance cannot release itself from shapeless chaos.

— Berthold Auerbach A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose (1889)

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: On the Heights (Bunnett, trans.)
Work: A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose, 1889
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

More by Berthold Auerbach

It lies in our own power to attune the mind to cheerfulness.

A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose (1889)

There is a childhood of the soul.

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We consider it tedious to talk of the weather, and yet there is nothing more important.

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The best loneliness is when no human eye has rested on our face for a whole day.

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Forgetting one’s self, or knowing one’s self, around these everything turns.

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It is only when one is thoroughly true that there can be purity and freedom.

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He who, to be happy, needs nothing but himself, is happy.

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He who is one with himself, is everything.

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Notes from Wikiquote

"Development", no. 1155

More quotes by Berthold Auerbach

Nature has no moods. They belong to man alone.

A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose (1889)

The best self-forgetfulness is to look at the things of the world with attention and love; for, really, attention is fraught with love, and perhaps that which is most unselfish.

A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose (1889)

Perfect solitude is when, for a whole day, no human eye has beheld your face.

Auf der Höhe · On the Heights (1865)

What people will say — in these words there lies the tyranny of the world, the whole destruction of our natural disposition, the oblique vision of our minds. These four words bear sway everywhere.

A Dictionary of Quotations in Prose (1889)

He who possesses a firm faith, although in solitude, is not alone.

Auf der Höhe · On the Heights (1865)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Berthold Auerbach (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.