Precisely the way on which the species reaches its perfection, every individual human being (one earlier, one later) must have traversed, too.

— Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Eben die Bahn, aus welcher das Geschlecht zu seiner Vollkommenheit gelangt, muß jeder einzelne Mensch (der früher, der später) erst durchlaufen haben.

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The Education of Mankind, § 93

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More quotes by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

The worst of superstitions is to think
One's own most bearable.

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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.

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

Precisely the way on which the species reaches its perfection, every individual human being (one earlier, one later) must have traversed, too.

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