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People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Attributed

Wir sprechen überhaupt viel zu viel. Wir sollten weniger sprechen und mehr zeichnen. Ich meinerseits möchte mir das Reden ganz abgewöhnen und wie die bildende Natur in lauter Zeichnungen fortsprechen.

Original text (German)

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote lists this as attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but no primary source has been found.

Source: Attributed to Goethe by Johannes Falk in Goethe aus näherm persönlichen Umgange dargestellt (1832). literatur-live.de
Source quality: Weak source Only a web link, a social media post, or a bare page number with no work named.

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Attribution

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