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As For What I Have Done As A Poet, I Take No Pride In Whatever. Excellent Poets Have Lived At The Same Time With Me, Poets More Excellent Lived Before Me, And Others Will Come After Me. But That In My Country I Am The Only Person Who Knows The Truth In The Difficult Science Of Colors-of That, I Say, I Am Not A Little Proud, And Here Have A Consciousness Of Superiority To Many.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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As For What I

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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As For What I Have Done As A Poet, I Take No Pride In Whatever. Excellent Poets Have Lived At The Same Time With Me, Poets More Excellent Lived Before Me, And Others Will Come After Me. But That In My Country I Am The Only Person Who Knows The Truth In The Difficult Science Of Colors-of That, I Say, I Am Not A Little Proud, And Here Have A Consciousness Of Superiority To Many.

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People Who Think Honestly And Deeply Have A Hostile Attitude Towards The Public.

The Wealth That Cannot Be Administered Is A Burden.

To Be Pleased With One's Limits Is A Wretched State.

Knowing Who You Are

Since I Have Heard Often Enough That Everyone In The End Has His Own Religion, Nothing Seemed More Natural To Me Than To Fashion My Own.

Age Childish Makes, They Say, But 'tis Not True; We're Only Genuine Children Still In Age's Season. [ger., Das Alter Macht Nicht Kindisch, Wie Man Spricht, Es Findet Uns Nur Noch Als Wahre Kinder.]

Few People Have The Imagination For Reality.

Let No One Be Ashamed To Say Yes Today If Yesterday He Said No. Or To Say No Today If Yesterday He Said Yes. For That Is Life. Never To Have Changed-what A Pitiable Thing Of Which To Boast!

The World Only Goes Forward Because Of Those Who Oppose It.

Who Are You Then?" "i Am Part Of That Power Which Eternally Wills Evil And Eternally Works Good.

Science Has Been Seriously Retarded By The Study Of What Is Not Worth Knowing And Of What Is Not Knowable.

If A Poet Would Work Politically, He Must Give Himself Up To A Party; And So Soon As He Does That, He Is Lost As A Poet.

Why Go Further And Further, Look, Happiness Is Right Here. Learn How To Grab Hold Of Luck, For Luck Is Always There.

I Make Presents To The Mother But Think Of The Daughter.

To Know Someone Here Or There With Whom You Can Feel There Is Understanding In Spite Of Distances Or Thoughts Expressed That Can Make Life A Garden.

What Must The English And French Think Of The Language Of Our Philosophers When We Germans Do Not Understand It Ourselves?

Colour Itself Is A Degree Of Darkness.

Everything Is Hard Before It Is Easy.

What Is Predestination? Answer: God Is More Powerful And Wiser Than We Are, Therefore He Deals With Us According To His Pleasure.

Whoever Makes It A Rule To Test Action By Thought, Thought By Action, Cannot Falter, And If He Does, Will Soon Find His Way Back To The Right Road.

Beauty Is Everywhere A Welcome Guest.

I Look Upon All Four Gospels As Thoroughly Genuine, For There Shines Forth From Them The Reflected Splendor Of A Sublimity Proceeding From Jesus Christ.

The Eternal Feminine Draws Us On High.

Common Sense Is The Genius Of Humanity.

Noble Be Man, Helpful And Good!

Be Generous With Kindly Words, Especially About Those Who Are Absent.

I Am The Spirit That Negates. And Rightly So, For All That Comes To Be Deserves To Perish Wretchedly; 'twere Better Nothing Would Begin. Thus Everything That That Your Terms, Sin, Destruction, Evil Represent— That Is My Proper Element.

They Teach In Academies Far Too Many Things, And Far Too Much That Is Useless.

In The Realm Of Ideas Everything Depends On Enthusiasm... In The Real World All Rests On Perseverance.

There Is Nothing Worse Than Aggressive Stupidity.

Truth Is A Torch, But A Terrific One; Therefore We All Try To Reach It With Closed Eyes, Lest We Should Be Scorched.

We Have Time Enough If We But Use It Aright

Give Shape, Artist! Don't Talk! Your Poem Be But A Breath.

Blood Is A Juice Of Rarest Quality. [ger., Blut Ist Ein Ganz Beondrer Saft.]

The Happy Do Not Believe In Miracles.

Believe In Miracles

What A Day It Is When We Must Envy The Men In Their Graves.

Correction Does Much, But Encouragement Does More.

Let Us Seek To Fathom Those Things That Are Fathomable And Reserve Those Things Which Are Unfathomable For Reverence In Quietude.

There Are Two Things Parents Should Give Their Children Roots And Wings. Roots To Give Them Bearing And A Sense Of Belonging, But Also Wings To Help Free Them From Constraints And Prejudices And Give Them Other Ways To Travel (or Rather, To Fly).

Everything That Frees Our Spirit Without Giving Us Control Of Ourselves Is Ruinous.

There Is Nothing In Life So Irrational, That Good Sense And Chance May Not Set It To Rights; Nothing So Rational, That Folly And Chance May Not Utterly Confound It.

I Respect The Man Who Knows Distinctly What He Wants.

Limitation Of Aims Is The Mother Of Wisdom And The Secret Of Achievement.

Nature Reacts Not Only To Physical Disease, But Also To Moral Weakness; When The Danger Increases; She Gives Us Greater Courage

First And Last, What Is Demanded Of Genius Is Love Of Truth.

The Biggest Problem With Every Art Is By The Use Of Appearance To Create A Loftier Reality.

Man Is A Simple Being, And However Rich, Varied, And Unfathomable He May Be, The Cycle Of His Situations Is Soon Run Through.

The Coward Only Threatens When He Is Safe.

We Can Stand Only A Certain Amount Of Unhappiness; Anything Beyond That Annihilates Us Or Passes Us By, Leaving Us Apathethetic.

The Phrases That Men Hear Or Repeat Continually, End By Becoming Convictions And Ossify The Organs Of Intelligence.

For The Nature Of Women Is Closely Allied To Art

Age Does Not Make Us Childish, As Some Say; It Finds Us True Children.

It Is Natural To Man To Regard Himself As The Object Of The Creation, And To Think Of All Things In Relation To Himself, And The Degree In Which They Can Serve And Be Useful To Him.

Light Has Called Forth One Organ To Become Its Like, And Thus The Eye Is Formed By The Light And For The Light So That The Inner Light May Emerge To Meet The Outer Light.

A Judge Who Cannot Punish, In The End Associates Themselves With The Criminal.

The Thought Of Death Leaves Me In Perfect Peace, For I Have A Firm Conviction That Our Spirit Is A Being Of Indestructible Nature; It Works On From Eternity To Eternity, It Is Like The Sun, Which Though It Seems To Set To Our Mortal Eyes, Does Not Really Set, But Shines On Perpetually.

I Am Proud Of My Heart Alone, It Is The Sole Source Of Everything, All Our Strenght, Happiness & Misery. All The Knowledge I Possess Everyone Else Can Acquire, But My Heart Is All My Own

Happiness Is A Ball After Which We Run Wherever It Rolls, And We Push It With Our Feet When It Stops.

I Have Found Among My Papers A Sheet . . . In Which I Call Architecture Frozen Music.

Behavior Is The Mirror In Which Everyone Shows Their Image.

All Beginnings Are Delightful; The Threshold Is The Place To Pause.

A Useless Life Is An Early Death. [ger., Ein Unnutz Leben Ist Ein Fruher Tod.]

They Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves, All These Sober People!

Happy Contractedness Of Youth, Nay, Of Mankind In General, That They Think Neither Of The High Nor The Deep, Of The True Nor The False, But Only Of What Is Suited To Their Own Conceptions.

If Children Grew Up According To Early Indications, We Should Have Nothing But Geniuses.

The Person Of Analytic Or Critical Intellect Finds Something Ridiculous In Everything. The Person Of Synthetic Or Constructive Intellect, In Almost Nothing.

You'll Never Attain It Unless You Know The Feeling.

Tis Lilith. Who? Adam's First Wife Is She. Beware The Lure Within Her Lovely Tresses, The Splendid Sole Adornment Of Her Hair; When She Succeeds Therewith A Youth To Snare, Not Soon Again She Frees Him From Her Jesses.

There Is No Surer Method Of Evading The World Than By Following Art, And No Surer Method Of Linking Oneself To It Than By Art.

Fret Not Over The Irretrievable, But Ever Act As If Thy Life Were Just Begun.

Well-mannered Children Could Be Conceived If The Parents Were Well-mannered.

What I Possess I Would Gladly Retain. Change Amuses The Mind, Yet Scarcely Profits.

Whoever Aspiring, Struggles On, For Him There Is Salvation.

Pity On The Person Who Has Become Accustomed To Seeing In Necessity Something Arbitrary, Who Ascribes To The Arbitrary Some Sort Of Reason, And Even Claims That Following That Sort Of Reason Has Religious Value.

Whatever We Think Out, Whatever We Take In Hand To Do, Should Be Perfectly And Finally Finished, That The World, If It Must Alter, Will Only Have To Spoil It; We Have Then Nothing To Do But Unite The Severed, To Recollect And Restore The Dismembered.

Certain Books Seem To Be Written, Not That We Might Learn From Them, But In Order That We Might See How Much The Author Knows.

The Eternal Female Draws Us Onward.

Man Cannot Persist Long In A Conscious State, He Must Throw Himself Back Into The Unconscious, For His Root Lives There.

To Me The External Existence Of My Soul Is Proved From My Idea Of Activity. If I Work Incessantly Until My Death, Nature Will Give Me Another Form Of Existence When The Present Can No Longer Sustain My Spirit.

An Actor Should Take Lessons From A Painter And A Sculptor.

The Web Of This World Is Woven Of Necessity And Chance. Woe To Him Who Has Accustomed Himself From His Youth Up To Find Something Necessary In What Is Capricious, And Who Would Ascribe Something Like Reason To Chance And Make A Religion Of Surrendering To It.

Children, Love One Another, And If That Is Not Possible-at Least Try To Put Up With One Another.

Love One Another

Let Us Live In As Small A Circle As We Will, We Are Either Debtors Or Creditors Before We Have Had Time To Look Around.

My Days Are As Happy As Those Reserved By God For His Elect; And Whatever Be My Fate Hereafter, I Can Never Say That I Have Not Tasted Joy— The Purest Joy Of Life.

The Best Way To Understand A Painting Is By Drawing It.

Thank God When He Lays A Burden On Thee, And Thank Him When He Takes It Off.

You Can Easily Judge The Character Of A Man By How He Treats Those Who Can Do Nothing For Him.

If One Has Not Read The Newspapers For Some Months And Then Reads Them All Together, One Sees, As One Never Saw Before, How Much Time Is Wasted With This Kind Of Literature.

Thought Provoking

It Is In Vain That A Man Of Sound Mind And Cool Temper Understands The Condition Of Such A Wretched Being... He Can No More Communicate His Own Wisdom To Him Than A Healthy Man Can Instil His Strength Into The Invalid By Whose Bedside He Is Seated.

The Formation Of One's Character Ought To Be Everyone's Chief Aim.

Only He Who Finds Empiricism Irksome Is Driven To Method.

It Is Said, That No One Is A Hero To Their Butler. The Reason Is, That It Requires A Hero To Recognize A Hero. The Butler, However, Will Probably Know Well How To Estimate His Equals.

When An Idea Is Wanting, A Word Can Always Be Found To Take Its Place.

Devote Each Day To The Object Then In Time And Every Evening Will Find Something Done.

It Is Natural To Man To Regard Himself As The Final Cause Of Creation.

Rest Not. Life Is Sweeping By; Go And Dare Before You Die. Something Mighty And Sublime, Leave Behind To Conquer Time.

Great Endowments Often Announce Themselves In Youth In The Form Of Singularity And Awkwardness.

What Chance Gathers, She Easily Scatters. A Great Person Attracts Great People And Knows How To Hold Them Together.

To A Valet No Man Is A Hero. [ger., Es Gibt Fur Den Kammerdiener Keiner Helden.]

For A Brave Man Deserves A Well-endowed Girl. [ger., Denn Ein Wackerer Mann Verdient Ein Begutertes Madchen.]

Beware Of A Man Of One Book.

Let Him Who Believes In Immortality Enjoy His Happiness In Silence; He Has No Reason To Give Himself Airs About It.

The Decline In Literature Indicates A Decline In The Nation. The Two Keep Pace In Their Downward Tendency.

To Be Loved For What One Is, That Is The Greatest Exception. The Great Majority Love In Others Only What They Lend Him; Their Own Selves, Their Version Of Him.

Everything In The World May Be Endured Except Continual Prosperity.

How Circumscribed Is Woman's Destiny!

Artists Have A Double Relationship Towards Nature: They Are Her Master And Her Slave At The Same Time. They Are Her Slave In So Far As They Must Work With Means Of This World So As To Be Understood; Her Master In So Far As They Subject These Means To Their Higher Goals And Make Them Subservient To Them.

Those Who Have No Hope For A Future Life Are Already Dead For The Present One.

When One Is Polite In German, One Lies.

The Dangers Of Life Are Infinite, And Among Them Is Safety.

The Sickness Of The Heart Is Most Easily Got Rid Of By Complaining And Soothing Confidence.

The Senses Do Not Deceive Us, But The Judgment Does.

The Rich Want Good Wine, The Poor, Plenty Of Wine

Wind Is The Loving Wooer Of Waters; Wind Blends Together Billows All-foaming. Spirit Of Man, Thou Art Like Unto Water! Fortune Of Man, Thou Art Like Unto Wind!

Whatever You Can Do Or Dream, Begin It.

The Greatest Piece Of Folly Is That Every Man Thinks Himself Compelled To Hand Down What People Think They Have Known.

Only The Soul That Loves Is Happy

Only Learn To Seize Good Fortune, For Good Fortune's Always Here.

I Have Found A Paper Of Mine Among Some Others In Which I Call Architecture 'petrified Music.' Really There Is Something In This; The Tone Of Mind Produced By Architecture Approaches The Effect Of Music.

The History Of Mankind Is His Character.

We Can Offer Up Much In The Large, But To Make Sacrifices In Little Things Is What We Are Seldom Equal To.

For The Butterfly, Mating And Propagation Involve The Sacrifice Of Life, For The Human Being, The Sacrifice Of Beauty.

Such Is The Frailty Of Man That Even Where He Makes The Truest And Most Forcible Impression In The Memory, In The Heart Of His Beloved, There Also He Must Perish.

What Is The Freedom Of The Most Free? To Do What Is Right!

Love Does Not Rule; But It Trains, And That Is More.

I Believe In God And In Nature And In The Triumph Of Good Over Evil.

Everyone Is Deceived In His Hopes, Cheated In His Expectations.

Whatever Nature Undertakes, She Can Only Accomplish It In A Sequence. She Never Makes A Leap.

Wood Burns Because It Has The Proper Stuff In It; And A Man Becomes Famous Because He Has The Proper Stuff In Him.

The Misery That Oppresses You Lies Not In Your Profession But In Yourself! What Man In The World Would Not Find His Situation Intolerable If He Chooses A Craft, An Art, Indeed Any Form Of Life, Without Experiencing An Inner Calling? Whoever Is Born With A Talent, Or To A Talent, Must Surely Find In That The Most Pleasing Of Occupations! Everything On This Earth Has Its Difficult Sides! Only Some Inner Drive - Pleasure, Love - Can Help Us Overcome Obstacles, Prepare A Path, And Lift As Out Of The Narrow Circle In Which Others Tread Out Their Anguished, Miserable Existences!

Everything Great And Intelligent Is In The Minority

Let Everyone Sweep In Front Of His Own Door, And The Whole World Will Be Clean.

Be Always Resolute With The Present Hour. Every Moment Is Of Infinite Value.

How Can You Come To Know Yourself? Never By Thinking, Always By Doing. Try To Do Your Duty, And You'll Know Right Away What You Amount To.

I Can Promise To Be Upright, But Not To Be Without Bias. [ger., Aufrichtig Zu Sein Kann Ich Versprechen; Unparteiisch Zu Sein Aber Nicht.]

Miracle Is The Pet Child Of Faith.

We Will Burn That Bridge When We Come To It.

When She Sees The Leaves Fall, They Raise No Other Idea In Her Mind Than That Winter Is Approaching.

The Summit Charms Us, The Steps To It Do Not; With The Heights Before Our Eyes, We Like To Linger In The Plain. It Is Only A Part Of Art That Can Be Taught; But The Artist Needs The Whole. He Who Is Only Half Instructed Speaks Much And Is Always Wrong; Who Knows It Wholly Is Content With Acting And Speaks Seldom Or Late.

What You Have Inherited From Your Forefathers, It Takes Work To Make It Your Own.

Life Is The Childhood Of Our Immortality.

What Then Is Your Duty? What The Day Demands.

We Are So Constituted That We Believe The Most Incredible Things; And, Once They Are Engraved Upon The Memory, Woe To Him Who Would Endeavor To Erase Them.

Once More I Am A Wanderer, A Pilgrim, Through The World. But What Else Are You?

Deny Yourself! You Must Deny Yourself! That Is The Song That Never Ends.

I Have So Much In Me, And The Feeling For Her Absorbs It All; I Have So Much, And Without Her It All Comes To Nothing.

Unrequited Love

The Misfortune In The State Is, That Nobody Can Enjoy Life In Peace, But That Everybody Must Govern; And In Art, That Nobody Will Enjoy What Has Been Produced, But That Every One Wants To Reproduce On His Own Account.

Ye Great Teachers: Listen To What You Say!

Yes, My Love, Who Soever Lives, Loses, . . . But He Also Wins. [ger., Ja, Meine Liebe, Wer Lebt, Verliebt . . . Aber Er Gewinnt Auch.]

A Plant Is Like A Self-willed Man, Out Of Whom We Can Obtain All Which We Desire, If We Will Only Treat Him His Own Way.

The Greatest Thing In This World Is Not So Much Where We Stand As In What Direction We Are Moving.

The Thinker Makes A Great Mistake When He Asks After Cause And Effect. They Both Together Make Up The Indivisible Phenomenon.

The Hardest Thing To See Is What Is In Front Of Your Eyes.

It Is Ever True That He Who Does Nothing For Others, Does Nothing For Himself." ~ Goethe

One Of The Most Striking Signs Of The Decay Of Art Is The Intermixing Of Different Genres.

After All, Poets Shouldn't Be Their Own Interpreters And Shouldn't Carefully Dissect Their Poems Into Everyday Prose; That Would Mean The End Of Being Poets. Poets Send Their Creations Into The World, It Is Up To The Reader, The Aesthetician, And The Critic To Determine What They Wanted To Say With Their Creations.

We Are Shaped And Fashioned By What We Love.- Henry Ward Beecher - I Never Knew How To Worship Until I Knew How To Love.

Every Author In Some Way Portrays Himself In His Works, Even If It Be Against His Will.

I Treat My Heart Like A Sick Child And Gratify Its Every Fancy

We Gladly Put Antiquity Above Our Age But Not Posterity. Only A Father Doesn't Begrudge His Son's Talent.

It Is Delivery That Makes The Orators Success.

What Is The Destiny Of Man, But To Fill Up The Measure Of His Sufferings, And To Drink His Allotted Cup Of Bitterness?

The Spirit From Which We Act Is The Principal Matter.

The Effects Of Good Music Are Not Just Because It's New; On The Contrary Music Strikes Us More The More Familiar We Are With It.

But Who Will Dare To Speak The Truth Out Clear? The Few Who Anything Of Truth Have Learned, And Foolishly Did Not Keep Truth Concealed, Their Thoughts And Visions To The Common Herd Revealed, Since Time Began We've Crucified And Burned

A Human Being Needs Only A Small Plot Of Ground On Which To Be Happy, And Even Less To Lie Beneath.

Stupidity Is Without Anxiety.

Sometimes I Don't Understand How Another Can Love Her, Is Allowed To Love Her, Since I Love Her So Completely Myself, So Intensely, So Fully, Grasp Nothing, Know Nothing, Have Nothing But Her!

Mozart Is A Human Incarnation Of The Divine Force Of Creation.

And Those Whom Once My Song Had Cheered And Gladdened, If Still They Live, Rove Through The World Now Saddened.

One Never Goes So Far As When One Doesn't Know Where One Is Going.

Everyone Holds His Fortune In His Own Hands, Like A Sculptor The Raw Material He Will Fashion Into A Figure. But It's The Same With That Type Of Artistic Activity As With All Others: We Are Merely Born With The Capability To Do It. The Skill To Mold The Material Into What We Want Must Be Learned And Attentively Cultivated.

In Every Artist There Is A Touch Of Audacity Without Which No Talent Is Conceivable.

It Is A Maxim Of Wise Government To Treat People Not As They Should Be But As They Actually Are.

There Are But Few Who Have Ideas And Are, At The Same Time, Capable Of Action. Ideas Enlarge But Stymie, Action Enlivens But Confines.

Just As, Out Of Habit, One Consults A Run-down Clock As Though It Were Still Going, So Too One May Look At The Face Of A Beautiful Woman As Though He Still Loved Her.

The Further One Advances In Experience, The Closer One Comes To The Unfathomable; The More One Learns To Utilize Experience, The More One Recognizes That The Unfathomable Is Of No Practical Value.

There Is Nothing New On Earth / For A Person Who Lives Long And Experiences Much. / In My Years Of Youthful Wandering / I Have Seen Crystallized People.

To Appear At Church Every Sunday; To Look Down Upon, And Let Himself Be Looked At For An Hour By The Congregation, Is The Best Means Of Becoming Popular Which Can Be Recommended To A Young Sovereign.

I Bid The Chords Sweet Music Make, And All Must Follow In My Wake.

Don't Feel Guilty If You Don't Immediately Love Your Stepchildren As You Do Your Own, Or As Much As You Think You Should. Everyoneneeds Time To Adjust To The New Family, Adults Included. There Is No Such Thing As An "instant Parent." Actually, No Concrete Object Lies Outside Of The Poetic Sphere As Long As The Poet Knows How To Use The Object Properly.

What Is Fruitful Alone Is True.

A Well-bred Carriage Is Difficult To Imitate; For In Strictness It Is Negative, And It Implies A Long-continued Previous Training.

As For Solitude, I Cannot Understand How Certain People Seek To Lay Claim To Intellectual Stature, Nobility Of Soul And Strength Of Character, Yet Have Not The Slightest Feeling For Seclusion; For Solitude, I Maintain, When Joined With A Quiet Contemplation Of Nature, A Serene And Conscious Faith In Creation And The Creator, And A Few Vexations From Outside Is The Only School For A Mind Of Lofty Endowment.

Happy The Man Who Early Learns The Wide Chasm That Lies Between His Wishes And His Powers.

No Two Men See The World Exactly Alike, And Different Temperaments Will Apply In Different Ways A Principle That They Both Acknowledge.

When Ideas Fail, Words Come In Very Handy.

There Is No Past We Can Bring Back By Longing For It. There Is Only An Eternal Now That Builds And Creates Out Of The Past Something New And Better.

The Person Born With A Talent They Are Meant To Use Will Find Their Greatest Happiness In Using It.

All Rights And Laws Are Still Transmitted, Like An Eternal Sickness To The Race. [ger., Es Erben Sich Gesetz And Rechte Wie Eine Ew'ge Krankheit Fort.]

Truth Must Be Repeated Again And Again, Because Error Is Constantly Being Preached Round About.

Again And Again

No One As Ever Completed Their Apprenticeship.

There Speaks The Man Of Truly Noble Ways, Who Will Not Listen To The Words Of Praise. In Modesty Averse, And With Deaf Ears, He Acts As Though The Others Were His Peers.

Divide And Command, A Wise Maxim; Unite And Guide, A Better.

We All Walk In Mysteries. We Are Surrounded By An Atmosphere About Which We Still Know Nothing At All.

An Angel! Nonsense! Everybody So Describes His Mistress; And Yet I Find It Impossible To Tell You How Perfect She Is, Or Why She Is So Perfect: Suffice It To Say She Has Captivated All My Senses.

To Appreciate The Noble Is A Gain Which Can Never Be Torn From Us.

If A Man Knows Where To Get Good Advice, It Is As Though He Could Supply It Himself.

One Cannot Always Be A Hero, But One Can Always Be A Man.

The Eternal Feminine Doth Draw Us Upward. [ger., Das Ewig-weibliche Zieht Uns Hinan.]

Is It Life, I Ask, Is It Even Prudence, To Bore Thyself And Bore The Students?

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