All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mathematics lacks the power to change people's attitudes or resolve conflicts.
In this quote, Goethe emphasizes the limitations of mathematics in addressing human emotions, prejudices, and moral issues. While mathematics is a powerful tool for solving problems within its own realm, it cannot influence people's feelings, relationships, or societal conflicts, highlighting the gap between numerical reasoning and human experience.
Themes
MathematicsPrejudiceConflictEmotionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a debate about the role of science in society.
More from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
All quotes →Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
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I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!
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Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
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Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
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