4 ms·
There is a famous quote assigned to Goethe in German, which roughly says »A fool can ask more questions then 7 wise men can answer«. The internet just increased
by ktpsns 6y ago
There is a famous quote assigned to Goethe in German, which roughly says »A fool can ask more questions then 7 wise men can answer«. The internet just increased the visibility of fools. Let's ensure wise men don't stop to share their wisedom, because that's what participative education is all about.
- trishmapow2 6y agoFor those interested in / learning German: https://www.dict.cc/german-english/Ein+Narr+kann+mehr+Fragen+stellen+als+sieben+Weise+beantworten+k%C3%B6nnen.html https://www.dict.cc/german-english/Ein+Narr+kann+mehr+Fragen... Not sure about the original source though. A quick Google comes up with either German, Italian or even Lenin, with varying numbers of wise men.
- arp242 6y agoThis compendium of idioms from 1925 mentions it dates to the middle ages[1] – but without any details. As an aside, I came across Proverbs 18:2, which I rather like: "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion" (or, somewhat more poetic in KJV: "A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself"). [1]: In Dutch: https://dbnl.org/tekst/stoe002nede01_01/stoe002nede01_01_0629.php https://dbnl.org/tekst/stoe002nede01_01/stoe002nede01_01_062...
- pwdisswordfish0 6y agoFor those who are German or otherwise and learning English, the following two phrases are not the same (they have opposite meanings): 1. Let's ensure wise men don't stop to share their wisdom 2. Let's ensure wise men don't stop sharing their wisdom If you say, "don't stop to do X," that means (roughly), "don't do X." In other words, #1 means the same thing as, "Let's ensure wise men don't share their wisdom." #2 is the one you want. If the amount of multiple negatives is confusing, omit them completely and say, "Let's ensure wise men keep sharing their wisdom."
- zekrioca 6y agoYour explanation is a bit confusing, although correct. I believe this person here [1] explains it better, with more examples. The key is to “stop thinking” of these two structures as similar to each other: They're not. [1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-stop-doing-something-and-stop-to-do-something https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-stop-do...
- masswerk 6y agoSo Goethe was off by 3? :-) (Disclaimer: I own the complete edition, so not meant as an offense.)
- throw0101a 6y agoA form of denial of service (DoS) against spreading knowledge: flood the system with 'requests'.
- paganel 6y agoThere's also a saying in Romanian which roughly translated (by me) goes something like this: "A fool throws a stone in the lake which then ten wise men people struggle to get out".
- mayankkaizen 6y agoCoincidentally Hindu mythology also has 7 wise sages.
- yesenadam 6y agoTorriano's A common place of Italian proverbs and proverbial phrases from 1666 has "One fool may ask more than seven wise men can answer". So it's probably very old.