“There are intellects that shine and there are those that sparkle. The former illuminate matters, the latter obscure them.”
Es gibt Menschen mit leuchtendem und Menschen mit glänzendem Verstande. Die ersten erhellen ihre Umgebung, die zweiten verdunkeln sie.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 28.
Original
Es gibt Menschen mit leuchtendem und Menschen mit glänzendem Verstande. Die ersten erhellen ihre Umgebung, die zweiten verdunkeln sie.
Aphorisms (1880/1893)
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Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach 81
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Context: Bonaparte robs a nation of its independence: deposed as emperor, he is sent into exile, where the world’s anxiety still does not think him safely enough imprisoned, guarded by the Ocean. He dies: the news proclaimed on the door of the palace in front of which the conqueror had announced so many funerals, neither detains nor astonishes the passer-by: what have the citizens to mourn?
Washington's Republic lives on; Bonaparte’s empire is destroyed. Washington and Bonaparte emerged from the womb of democracy: both of them born to liberty, the former remained faithful to her, the latter betrayed her.