James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Gellert
Die Eintracht nur macht stark und gross, / Die Zwietracht stürzet alles nieder—Only concord makes us strong and great; discord overthrows everything.
Du hast das nicht, was andre haben, / Und andern mangeln deine Gabe; / Aus dieser Unvollkommenheit / Entspringt die Geselligkeit—Thou hast not what others have, and others want what has been given thee; out of such defect springs good-fellowship.
Enjoy what God has given thee, and willingly dispense with what thou hast not. Every condition has its own joys and sorrows.
He who cannot profit you as a friend may at any time injure you as an enemy.
Je minder sich der Kluge selbst gefällt, / Um desto mehr schätzt ihn die Welt—The less the sage pleases himself, the more the world esteems him.
Lebe, wie du, wenn du stirbst, / Wünschen wirst, gelebt zu haben—Live, as you will wish to have lived when you come to die.
Man mag Amphion sein und Fels und Wald bewegen, / Deswegen kann man doch nicht Bauern widerlegen—One may be a very Amphion and be able to move trees and rocks, and yet be unable to reduce peasants to reason.
Man muss, will man ein Glück geniessen, / Die Freiheit zu behaupten wissen—If we would enjoy what fortune gives us, we must know how to maintain our freedom.
Nicht jede Besserung ist Tugend—Not every improvement is virtue.
The best gifts find the fewest admirers, and most men mistake the bad for the good.
The less the wise man pleases himself, the more the world esteems him.
The miser is niggardly in death; two glances he casts on his coffin and a thousand with dismay on his anxiously-guarded treasures.
The truth we need is only lightly veiled, not deeply buried by the wise hand which has designed it for us.
Thou hast not what others have, and others have not the gift thou hast. From this imperfection springs sociability.
Wer dir als Freund nichts nützen kann / Kann allemal als Feind dir schaden—He who can do you no service as a friend, can always work you harm as an enemy.