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As In Rome There Is, Apart From The Romans, A Population Of Statues, So Apart From This Real World There Is A World Of Illusion, Almost More Potent, In Which Most Men Live.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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As In Rome There

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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As In Rome There Is, Apart From The Romans, A Population Of Statues, So Apart From This Real World There Is A World Of Illusion, Almost More Potent, In Which Most Men Live.

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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Create, Artist, Do Not Talk.

Faith Is Hidden Household Capital.

In Art It's Not The Thinking That Does The Job, But Making.

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

My Counsel Is, To Force Nothing, And Rather To Trifle And Sleep Away All Unproductive Days And Hours, Than On Such Days To Compose Something That Will Afterwards Give No Pleasure.

A Man's Manners Are A Mirror In Which He Shows His Portrait.

Men Are So Inclined To Content Themselves With What Is Commonest; The Spirit And The Senses So Easily Grow Dead To The Impressions Of The Beautiful And Perfect, That Every One Should Study, By All Methods, To Nourish In His Mind The Faculty Of Feeling These Things. ...for This Reason, One Ought Every Day At Least, To Hear A Little Song, Read A Good Poem, See A Fine Picture, And, If It Were Possible, To Speak A Few Reasonable Words.

Say What We May Of The Inadequacy Of Translation, Yet The Work Is And Will Always Be One Of The Weightiest And Worthiest Undertakings In The General Concerns Of The World.

To Understand One Thing Well Is Better Than Understanding Many Things By Halves.

Every Beginning Is Cheerful.

Whoever Would Do Good In The World, Ought Not To Deal In Censure. We Ought Not To Destroy, But Rather Construct.

Perfection Is The Measure Of Heaven, And The Wish To Be Perfect The Measure Of Man.

A Correct Answer Is Like An Affectionate Kiss.

Slap In The Face

To Have Seen Italy Without Having Seen Sicily Is To Not Have Seen Italy At All, For Sicily Is The Clue To Everything.

If Youth Is A Fault, It Is One That One Gets Rid Of Soon Enough.

It Is Bad Governments, Not Bad People, Who Cause Revolutions.

The One Who Acts Is Always Without Conscience; Nobody Has A Conscience But The Contemplative Person.

A Phenomenon Like Mozart Remains An Inexplicable Thing.

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.

The Ideal Of Beauty Is Simplicity And Tranquility.

Time Does Not Relinquish Its Rights, Either Over Human Beings Or Over Mountains.

The Style Of An Author Is A Faithful Copy Of His Mind.

Let No One Be Like Another, Yet Everyone Like The Highest. How Is This Done? Be Each One Perfect In Himself.

Meaning Of Life

Each Traveler Should Know What He Has To See, And What Properly Belongs To Him, On A Journey.

If I Say To The Moment: 'stay Now! You Are So Beautiful'!

Quite Often, As Life Goes On, When We Feel Completely Secure As We Go On Our Way, We Suddenly Notice That We Are Trapped In Error, That We Have Allowed Ourselves To Be Taken In By Individuals, By Objects, Have Dreamt Up An Affinity With Them Which Immediately Vanishes Before Our Waking Eye; And Yet We Cannot Tear Ourselves Away, Held Fast By Some Power That Seems Incomprehensible To Us. Sometimes, However, We Become Fully Aware And Realize That Error As Well As Truth Can Move And Spur Us On To Action.

Truth Is A Torch, But A Huge One, And So It Is Only With Blinking Eyes What We All Of Us Try To Get Past It, In Actual Terror Of Being Burnt.

If You Want To Reach The Infinite, Then Explore Every Aspect Of The Finite.

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

We're Only Really Thinking When We Can't Think Out Fully What We Are Really Thinking About!

So Dear Night The Half Of Life Is, And The Fairest Half Indeed.

There Are Few Who Have At Once Thought And Capacity For Action. Thought Expands, But Lames; Action Animates, But Narrows.

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

For A Strolling Damsel A Doubtful Reputation Bears.

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

Generally Speaking, An Author's Style Is A Faithful Copy Of His Mind. If You Would Write A Lucid Style, Let There First Be Light In Your Own Mind; And If You Would Write A Grand Style, You Ought To Have A Grand Character.

Your Messages I Hear, But Faith Has Not Been Given; The Dearest Child Of Faith Is Miracle.

The Follies Of The Wise Man Are Known To Himself, But Hidden From The World.

It Is Said That No Man Is A Hero To His Valet. That Is Because A Hero Can Be Recognized Only By A Hero.

The Best Genius Is That Which Absorbs And Assimilates Everything Without Doing The Least Violence To Its Fundamental Destiny.

Architecture Is Frozen Music. [ger., Die Backunst Ist Eine Erstarrte Musik.]

Mathematics Can Remove No Prejudices And Soften No Obduracy. It Has No Influence In Sweetening The Bitter Strife Of Parties, And In The Moral World Generally Its Action Is Perfectly Null.

To The Person With A Firm Purpose All Men And Things Are Servants.

Architecture Is Crystallized Music.

Vanity Is A Desire Of Personal Glory, The Wish To Be Appreciated, Honoured, And Run After, Not Because Of One's Personal Qualities, Merits, And Achievements, But Because Of One's Individual Existence. At Best, Therefore, It Is A Frivolous Beauty Whim It Befits.

Personal Qualities

Few People Have The Imagination For Reality.

Great Possessions And Great Want Of Them Are Both Strong Temptations.

If Society Gives Up The Right To Impose The Death Penalty, Then Self-help Will Appear Again And Personal Vendettas Will Be Around The Corner.

He Who Does Not See The Whole World In His Friends, Does Not Deserve That The World Should Hear Of Him.

The Field Of Experience Is The Whole Universe In All Directions. Theory Remains Shut Up Within The Limits Of Human Faculties.

He Who Is Resolute Conquers Grief.

Superstition Is Rooted In A Much Deeper And More Sensitive Layer Of The Psyche Than Skepticism.

As Beauteous Is The World, And Many A Joy Floats Through Its Wide Dominion. But, Alas, When We Would Seize The Winged Good, It Flies.

Nothing Is True, But That Which Is Simple.

Every Offense Is Avenged On Earth.

It Is A Great Pleasure To Transport One's-self Into The Spirit Of The Times; To See How A Wise Man Has Thought Before Us, And To What A Glorious Height We Have At Last Carried It.

All That Is Noble Is In Itself Of A Quiet Nature, And Appears To Sleep Until It Is Aroused And Summoned Forth By Contrast.

I Hate Every Violent Overthrow, Because As Much Is Destroyed As Is Gained By It.

A Leaf That Is Destined To Grow Large Is Full Of Grooves And Wrinkles At The Start. Now If One Has No Patience And Wants It Smooth Offhand Like A Willow Leaf, There Is Trouble Ahead.

I Am Amazed To See How Deliberately I Have Entangled Myself Step By Step. To Have Seen My Position So Clearly, And Yet To Have Acted So Like A Child!

Whether One Show One's Self A Man Of Genius In Science Or Compose A Song, The Only Point Is, Whether The Thought, The Discovery, The Deed, Is Living And Can Live On.

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.

Only He Who Finds Empiricism Irksome Is Driven To Method.

The Greatest Difficulties Lie Where We Are Not Looking For Them.

We Who Didn't Inherit Political Power Nor Are Made To Acquire Riches Like Nothing Better Than That Which Expands And Solidifies The Power Of The Spirit.

Thou Art In The End What Thou Art. Put On Wigs With Millions Of Curls, Set Thy Foot Upon Ell-high Rocks. Thou Abidest Ever--what Thou Art.

And Here, Poor Fool, With All My Lore I Stand No Wiser Than Before.

As In Rome There Is, Apart From The Romans, A Population Of Statues, So Apart From This Real World There Is A World Of Illusion, Almost More Potent, In Which Most Men Live.

However Often We Turn To It [the Koran] At First Disgusting Us Each Time Afresh, It Soon Attracts, Astounds, And In The End Enforces Our Reverence. . . . Its Style, In Accordance With Its Contents And Aim Is Stern, Grand, Terrible - Ever And Anon Truly Sublime - Thus This Book Will Go On Exercising Through All Ages A Most Potent Influence.

No Wonder We Are All More Or Less Pleased With Mediocrity, Since It Leaves Us At Rest, And Gives The Same Comfortable Feeling As When One Associates With His Equals.

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

Knowing Who You Are

If You Want A Wise Answer, Ask A Reasonable Question.

Questions And Answers

The Written Word Has This Advantage, That It Lasts And Can Await The Time When It Is Allowed To Take Effect.

What Is Important In Life Is Life, And Not The Result Of Life.

If God Had Wanted Me Otherwise, He Would Have Created Me Otherwise.

When I Err Every One Can See It, But Not When I Lie. [ger., Wenn Ich Irre Kann Es Jeder Bemerken; Wenn Ich Luge, Nicht.]

When Intelligent And Sensible People Despise Knowledge In Their Old Age, It Is Only Because They Have Asked Too Much Of It And Of Themselves.

Man's Highest Merit Always Is, As Much As Possible, To Rule External Circumstances And As Little As Possible To Let Himself Be Ruled By Them.

This World Could Not Exist If It Were Not So Simple. The Ground Has Been Tilled A Thousand Years, Yet Its Powers Remain Ever The Same; A Little Rain, A Little Sun, And Each Spring It Grows Green Again.

We All Of Us Live Upon The Past, And Through The Past We Are Destroyed.

Destiny Grants Us Our Wishes, But In Its Own Way, In Order To Give Us Something Beyond Our Wishes.

We Cannot And Must Not Get Rid Of Nor Deny Our Characteristics. But We Can Give Them Shape And Direction.

Woe To Falsehood! It Affords No Relief To The Breast, Like Truth; It Gives Us No Comfort, Pains Him Who Forges It, And Like An Arrow Directed By A God Flies Back And Wounds The Archer.

A Noble Soul Alone Can Noble Souls Attract; And Knows Alone, As Ye, To Hold Them.

Whatever You Cannot Understand, You Cannot Possess.

Understanding And Love

So Much Has Already Been Said About Shakespeare That There Doesn't Seem To Be Anything More To Say; Yet It Is The Quality Of The Spirit That It Forever Stimulates The Spirit.

Lose The Day Loitering, 'twill Be The Same Story To-morrow, And The Next More Dilatory, For Indecision Brings Its Own Delays, And Days Are Lost Lamenting O'er Lost Days. Are You In Earnest? Seize This Very Minute! What You Can Do, Or Think You Can, Begin It! Only Engage, And Then The Mind Grows Heated; Begin It, And The Work Will Be Completed.

Should I Not Be Proud, When For Twenty Years I Have Had To Admit To Myself That The Great Newton And All The Mathematicians And Noble Calculators Along With Him Were Involved In A Decisive Error With Respect To The Doctrine Of Color, And That I Among Millions Was The Only One Who Knew What Was Right In This Great Subject Of Nature?

Beware Of Dissipating Your Powers; Strive Constantly To Concentrate Them.

The Mind Is Found Most Acute And Most Uneasy In The Morning. Uneasiness Is, Indeed, A Species Of Sagacity - A Passive Sagacity. Fools Are Never Uneasy.

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

If Man Thinks About His Physical Or Moral State He Usually Discovers That He Is Ill.

The Man Who Occupies The First Place Seldom Plays The Principal Part.

Flowers Are The Beautiful Hieroglyphics Of Nature With Which She Indicates How Much She Loves Us.

Who Is The Happiest Man? He Who Is Alive To The Merit Of Others, And Can Rejoice In Their Enjoyment As If It Were His Own.

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

We Can't Form Our Children On Our Own Concepts; We Must Take Them And Love Them As God Gives Them To Us.

Superstition Is The Poetry Of Life.

Woman Is Mistress Of The Art Of Completely Imbittering The Life Of The Person On Whom She Depends.

Water Its Living Strength First Shows, When Obstacles Its Course Oppose.

The Useful May Be Trusted To Further Itself, For Many Produce It And No One Can Do Without It; But The Beautiful Must Be Specially Encouraged, For Few Can Present It, While Yet All Have Need Of It.

One Says A Lot In Vain, Refusing; The Other Mainly Hears The "no."

Nature Knows No Pause In Progress And Development, And Attaches Her Curse On All Inaction.

Man, Be He Who He May, Experiences A Last Piece Of Good Fortune And A Last Day. [ger., Der Mensch Erfahrt, Er Sei Auch Wer Er Mag, Ein Letztes Gluck Und Einen Letzten Tag.]

A Man Who Cannot Command Himself Will Always Be A Slave.

The Greatest Act Of Faith Takes Place When A Man Finally Decides That He Is Not God.

The Artist Has A Twofold Relation To Nature; He Is At Once Her Master And Her Slave.

Talent Is Nurtured In Solitude; Character Is Formed In The Stormy Billows Of The World.

This Is The True Measure Of Love, When We Believe That We Alone Can Love, That No One Could Ever Have Loved So Before Us, And That No One Will Ever Love In The Same Way After Us.

To Act Is Easy; To Think Is Hard.

The Brilliant Passes, Like The Dew At Morn; The True Endures, For Ages Yet Unborn.

A Man Is Not Little When He Finds It Difficult To Cope With Circumstances, But When Circumstances Overmaster Him.

I Have Always Paid Attention To The Merits Of My Enemies, And Found It An Advantage.

Tolerance Should Really Be Only A Temporary Attitude; It Must Lead To Recognition. To Tolerate Means To Offend.

Time Is A Strange Thing. It Is A Whimsical Tyrant, Which In Every Century Has A Different Face For All That One Says And Does.

Different Faces

Why Look For Conspiracy When Stupidity Can Explain So Much

That Which Is Eternal In Woman Lifts Us Above.

Certain Defects Are Necessary For The Existence Of Individuality.

We Rather Confess Our Moral Errors, Faults, And Crimes Than Our Ignorance.

If You Miss The First Buttonhole, You Will Not Succeed In Buttoning Up Your Coat.

Thou Must (in Commanding And Winning, Or Serving And Losing, Suffering Or Triumphing) Be Either Anvil Or Hammer.

For Just When Ideas Fail, A Word Comes In To Save The Situation.

Everything We Do Has A Result. But That Which Is Right And Prudent Does Not Always Lead To Good, Nor The Contrary To What Is Bad.

What I Possess, Seems Far Away To Me, And What Is Gone Becomes Reality.

The Suffering May Be Moral Or Physical; And In My Opinion It Is Just As Absurd To Call A Man A Coward Who Destroys Himself, As To Call A Man A Coward Who Dies Of A Malignant Fever.

The Really Unhappy Person Is The One Who Leaves Undone What They Can Do, And Starts Doing What They Don't Understand; No Wonder They Come To Grief.

The Happy Do Not Believe In Miracles.

Believe In Miracles

The Eye Doesn't See Any Shapes, It Sees Only What Is Differentiated Through Light And Dark Or Through Colors.

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

Everything Great And Intelligent Is In The Minority

If You Don't Know Foreign Languages, You Don't Know Anything About Your Own.

Foreign Language

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

Everything In The World May Be Endured Except Continual Prosperity.

Who Enslaves Another's Manhood With Weak Human Power Alone, Lays A Heavier Yoke Of Bondage Thoughtlessly Upon His Own.

The Connoisseur Of Art Must Be Able To Appreciate What Is Simply Beautiful, But The Common Run Of People Is Satisfied With Ornament.

I Hate All Bungling As I Do Sin, But Particularly Bungling In Politics, Which Leads To The Misery And Ruin Of Many Thousands And Millions Of People.

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.

Properly Speaking, Such Work Is Never Finished; One Must Declare It So When, According To Time And Circumstances, One Has Done One's Best.

I Am A Part Of The Part That At First Was All, Part Of The Darkness That Gave Birth To The Light, That Supercilious Light Which Now Disputes With Mother Night Her Ancient Rank And Space, And Yet Cannot Succeed; No Matter How It Struggles, It Sticks To Matter And Can't Get Free. Light Flows From Substance, Makes It Beautiful.

Assuredly There Is No More Lovely Worship Of God Than That For Which No Image Is Required, But Which Springs Up In Our Breast Spontaneously When Nature Speaks To The Soul, And The Soul Speaks To Nature Face To Face.

Every Form Correctly Seen Is Beautiful

Of All Peoples The Greeks Have Dreamt The Dream Of Life Best.

The World Is For Thousands A Freak Show; The Images Flicker Past And Vanish; The Impressions Remain Flat And Unconnected In The Soul. Thus They Are Easily Led By The Opinions Of Others, Are Content To Let Their Impressions Be Shuffled And Rearranged And Evaluated Differently.

From Inaccessible Mountain Range By Way Of Desert Untrod By Human Foot To The Ends Of The Unknown Seas, The Breath Of The Everlasting Creative Spirit Is Felt, Rejoicing Over Every Speck Of Dust That Hearkens To It And Lives.

Mountain Ranges

I Have Often Reaped What Others Have Sowed. My Work Is The Work Of A Collective Being That Bears The Name Goethe.

Alas! How Much There Is In Education, And In Our Social Institutions, To Prepare Us And Our Children For Insanity.

What Reason Would Grope For In Vain, Spontaneous Impulse Ofttimes Achieves At A Stroke, With Light And Pleasureful Guidance.

He Who Knows No Foreign Languages Knows Nothing Of His Own.

I Come More And More To The Conclusion That One Must Take The Side Of The Minority Which Is Always The More Intelligent One.

None Are So Hopelessly Enslaved, As Those Who Falsely Believe They Are Free. The Truth Has Been Kept From The Depth Of Their Minds By Masters Who Rule Them With Lies. They Feed Them On Falsehoods Till Wrong Looks Like Right In Their Eyes.

The Mortal Race Is Far Too Weak Not To Grow Dizzy On Unwonted Brights.

There Are People Who Pay Attention To The Weaknesses Of Their Friends; That Is To No Avail. I Have Always Closely Watched And Profited From The Strengths Of My Adversaries.

We Should Know Mankind Better If We Were Not So Anxious To Resemble One Another.

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

Man Usually Believes, If Only Words He Hears, That Also With Them Goes Material For Thinking. [ger., Gewohnlich Glaubt Der Mensch, Wenn Er Nur Worte Hort, Es Musse Sich Dabei Doch Auch Was Denken.]

Even Dirt Glitters When The Sun Is Shining Upon It

Ill-humor Is Nothing More Than An Inward Feeling Of Our Own Want Of Merit, A Dissatisfaction With Ourselves Which Is Always United With An Envy That Foolish Vanity Excites.

Man Believes Himself Always Greater Than He Is, And Is Esteemed Less Than He Is Worth.

The Highest Cannot Be Spoken; It Can Only Be Acted.

To A Valet No Man Is A Hero.

He Who Is Wise Puts Aside All Claims Which May Dissipate His Attention, And Confining Himself To One Branch Excels In That.

For To Give Is The Business Of The Rich. [lat., Denn Geben Ist Sache Des Reichen.]

The Artist Alone Sees Spirits. But After He Has Told Of Their Appearing To Him, Everybody Sees Them.

The Mediator Of The Inexpressible Is The Work Of Art.

The Clever Reader Who Is Capable Or Reading Between These Lines What Does Not Stand Written In Them But Is Nevertheless Implied Will Be Able To Form Some Conception.

Nothing Is More Terrible Than To See Ignorance In Action.

So Long As You Live And Work, You Will Be Misunderstood; To That You Must Resign Yourself Once And For All. Be Silent!

If We Meet Someone Who Owes Us A Debt Of Gratitude, We Remember The Fact At Once. How Often We Can Meet Someone To Whom We Owe A Debt Of Gratitude Without Thinking About It At All!

Someday Someone Will Write A Pathology Of Experimental Physics And Bring To Light All Those Swindles Which Subvert Our Reason, Beguile Our Judgement And, What Is Worse, Stand In The Way Of Any Practical Progress. The Phenomena Must Be Freed Once And For All From Their Grim Torture Chamber Of Empiricism, Mechanism, And Dogmatism; They Must Be Brought Before The Jury Of Man's Common Sense.

If You Lay Duties Upon People And Give Them No Rights, You Must Pay Them Well.

To Act Is Easy, To Think Is Hard; To Act According To Our Thought Is Troublesome.

Dispel Not, The Happy Delusions Of Children.

There Is Strong Shadow Where There Is Much Light.

No Prudent Antagonist Thinks Light Of His Adversaries.

Passions Are Vices Or Virtues To Their Highest Powers.

Do Not Hurry; Do Not Rest.

It Is Working Within Limits That The Craftsman Reveals Himself.

I Will Be Lord Over Myself.

Clever People Are Always The Best Conversations Lexicon.

All Perishable Is But An Allegory.

How Shall We Plan, That All Be Fresh And New-- Important Matter Yet Attractive Too? [ger., Wie Machen Wir's, Dass Alles Frisch Und Neu Und Mit Bedeutung Auch Gefallig Sei?]

Care Is Taken That Trees Do Not Grow Into The Sky.

Nature Understands No Jesting. She Is Always True, Always Serious, Always Severe. She Is Always Right, And The Errors Are Always Those Of Man.

Instruction Does Much, But Encouragement Everything.

Rash Combat Oft Immortalizes Man; If He Should Fall, He Is Renowned In Song; But After-ages Reckon Not The Ceaseless Tears Which The Forsaken Woman Sheds. Poets Tell Us Not Of The Many Nights Consumed In Weeping, Or Of The Dreary Days Wherein Her Anguished Soul Vainly Yearns To Call Her Loved One Back.

Chess Is The Touchstone Of Intellect.

Sin Writes Histories, Goodness Is Silent. [ger., Das Uebel Macht Eine Geschichte Und Das Gute Keine.]

Love Has The Tendency Of Pressing Together All The Lights - All The Rays Emitted From The Beloved Object By The Burning-glass Of Fantasy, - Into One Focus, And Making Of Them One Radiant Sun Without Any Spots.

How Many Kings Are Governed By Their Ministers, How Many Ministers By Their Secretaries? Who, In Such Cases, Is Really The Chief?

There Is Nothing In The World More Shameful Than Establishing One's Self On Lies And Fables.

The Aim Of Living Is Life Itself.

All Poetry Is Supposed To Be Instructive But In An Unnoticeable Manner; It Is Supposed To Make Us Aware Of What It Would Be Valuable To Instruct Ourselves In; We Must Deduce The Lesson On Our Own, Just As With Life.

Riches Amassed In Haste Will Diminish; But Those Collected By Hand And Little By Little Will Multiply.

It Is A Mistake For A Taciturn, Serious-minded Woman To Marry A Jovial Man, But Not For A Serious-minded Man To Marry A Lighthearted Woman.

The Intelligent Man Finds Almost Everything Ridiculous, The Sensible Man Hardly Anything.

On The Pinnacle Of Success Man Does Not Stand Firm Long.

Literature Is A Fragment Of A Fragment. Of All That Ever Happened, Or Has Been Said, But A Fraction Has Been Written; And Of This But Little Is Extant.

The World Remains Ever The Same.

Certain Faults Are Necessary For The Existence Of The Individual. We Would Resent It If Old Friends Were To Get Rid Of Certain Peculiarities.

Humans Fear Reason, But They Ought To Fear Stupidity- For Reason Can Be Hard, But Stupidity Can Be Fatal.

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