“When young, one is confident to be able to build palaces for…”

“When young, one is confident to be able to build palaces for mankind, but when the time comes one has one's hands full just to be able to remove their trash.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Verification

Attributed

Recorded by a reliable secondary source; exact wording may differ.

Imported from Wikiquote; not yet checked by QuoteQuest against the original source.

Source

Title: Wikiquote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Type: reference · Secondary source
Held by: Wikiquote

View source at Wikiquote

Context

Letter to Johann Kaspar Lavatar (6 March 1780)

Cite this source

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. (n.d.). Wikiquote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Wikiquote. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

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Provenance: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA)