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The Works Of Lavoisier And His Associates Operated Upon Many Of Us At That Time Like The Sun's Rising After A Night Of Moonshine: But Chemistry Is Now Betrothed To The Mathematics, And Is In Consequence Grown Somewhat Shy Of Her Former Admirers.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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The Works Of Lavoisier

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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The Works Of Lavoisier And His Associates Operated Upon Many Of Us At That Time Like The Sun's Rising After A Night Of Moonshine: But Chemistry Is Now Betrothed To The Mathematics, And Is In Consequence Grown Somewhat Shy Of Her Former Admirers.

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More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Nothing Puts Me So Completely Out Of Patience As The Utterance Of A Wretched Commonplace When I Am Talking From My Inmost Heart.

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

He Who Does Not Think Much Of Himself Is Much More Esteemed Than He Imagines.

We Blame Equally Him Who Is Too Proud To Put A Proper Value On His Own Merit And Him Who Prizes Too Highly His Spurious Worth.

I Never Believed In Trying To Do Anything. Whatever I Set Out To Do I Found I Had Already Accomplished.

Beauty Is A Manifestation Of Secret Natural Laws, Which Otherwise Would Have Been Hidden From Us Forever.

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

To Quit Smoking, You Must First Want To Quit, But Then You Must Also Do The Quitting

What In Us The Women Leave Uncultivated, Children Cultivate When We Retain Them Near Us.

Wisdom Is Only Found In Truth.

He Who Enjoys Doing And Enjoys What He Has Done Is Happy.

Nothing Will Change The Fact That I Cannot Produce The Least Thing Without Absolute Solitude.

A Really Great Talent Finds Its Happiness In Execution.

Words Are Mere Sound And Smoke, Dimming The Heavenly Light.

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

Superstition Is A Part Of The Very Being Of Humanity; And When We Fancy That We Are Banishing It Altogether, It Takes Refuge In The Strangest Nooks And Corners, And Then Suddenly Comes Forth Again, As Soon As It Believes Itself At All Safe.

There Is Nothing In Which People More Betray Their Character Than In What They Laugh At.

Create, Artist, Do Not Talk.

If You Start To Think Of Your Physical And Moral Condition, You Usually Find That You Are Sick.

Oh How Sweet It Is To Hear One's Own Convictions From Another's Lips.

It Is The Great Triumph Of Genius To Make The Common Appear Novel.

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.

What A Mighty Spirit In A Narrow Bosom. [ger., Welch' Hoher Geist In Einer Engen Brust.]

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

Science And Art Belong To The Whole World, And Before Them Vanish The Barriers Of Nationality.

If You Want To Understand Poetry, You Have To Go To Its Origin, If You Want To Understand The Poet, You Have To Go To The Poet's Home.

Thinking Is Easy, Acting Is Difficult, And To Put One's Thoughts Into Action Is The Most Difficult Thing In The World.

Beauty Is At Once The Ultimate Principle And The Highest Aim Of Art.

Whoso Shrinks From Ideas Ends By Having Nothing But Sensations.

What Makes People Happy Is Activity; Changing Evil Itself Into Good By Power, Working In A God Like Manner.

Too Many Parents Make Life Hard For Their Children By Trying, Too Zealously, To Make It Easy For Them.

Men's Prejudices Rest Upon Their Character For The Time Being And Cannot Be Overcome, As Being Part And Parcel Of Themselves. Neither Evidence Nor Common Sense Nor Reason Has The Slightest Influence Upon Them.

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.

For Precisely When Concepts Fail One, Words Are Found At The Right Time.

But One Must Know Where One Stands, And Where The Others Wish To Go.

Two Souls Dwell, Alas! In My Breast.

If Nature Is Your Teacher, Your Soul Will Awaken.

As Soon As You Trust Yourself, You Will Know How To Live.

Mysteries Are Not Necessarily Miracles.

At All Times It Has Not Been The Age, But Individuals Alone, Who Have Worked For Knowledge. It Was The Age Which Put Socrates To Death By Poison, The Age Which Burnt Huss. The Ages Have Always Remained Alike.

The Evil One Has Left, The Evil Ones Remain.

Nothing Is Worse Than Active Ignorance.

A Man Doesn't Learn To Understand Anything Unless He Loves It.

Letters Are Among The Most Significant Memorial A Person Can Leave Behind Them.

Everything Is Simpler Than One Can Imagine, And Yet Complicated And Inter-twined Beyond Comprehension.

Some Of Our Weaknesses Are Born In Us, Others Are The Result Of Education; It Is A Question Which Of The Two Gives Us Most Trouble.

We Often Feel That We Lack Something, And Seem To See That Very Quality In Someone Else, Promptly Attributing All Our Own Qualities To Him Too, And A Kind Of Ideal Contentment As Well. And So The Happy Mortal Is A Model Of Complete Perfection--which We Have Ourselves Created.

I Will Listen To Anyone's Convictions, But Pray Keep Your Doubts To Yourself.

Most Pioneers Are At The Mercy Of Doubt At The Beginning, Whether Of Their Worth, Of Their Theories, Or Of The Whole Enigmatic Field In Which They Labour.

He Who Is Firm And Resolute In Will Molds The World To Himself.

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.

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

I Had Rather Be Mercury, The Smallest Among Seven [planets], Revolving Round The Sun, Than The First Among Five [moons] Revolving Round Saturn.

The Person Who In Shaky Times Also Wavers Only Increases The Evil, But The Person Of Firm Decision Fashions The Universe.

The Experiences Show Us Just As We Are; They Make Us See Our Own Defects.

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

Over All The Mountain Tops Is Peace. In All Treetops You Perceive Scarcely A Breath. The Little Birds In The Forest Are Silent. Wait Then; Soon, You Too, Will Have Peace.

Help Me To Discover Thy Truth, O Lord, And Preserve Me From Those Who Have Already Found It

There Is No Remedy But Love For The Great Superiority Of Others

The History Of Knowledge Is A Great Fugue In Which The Voices Of The Nations One After The Other Emerge.

Beauty Is A Primeval Phenomenon, Which Itself Never Makes Its Appearance, But The Reflection Of Which Is Visible In A Thousand Different Utterances Of The Creative Mind, And Is As Various As Nature Herself.

Lord Byron Is Only Great As A Poet; As Soon As He Reflects He Is A Child.

Can A Sparrow Know How A Stork Feels?

For Many People, One Of The Most Frustrating Aspects Of Life Is Not Being Able To Understand Other People's Behavior.

The Philosophers Must Station Themselves In The Middle.

Many People Take No Care Of Their Money Till They Come Nearly To The End Of It, And Others Do Just The Same With Their Time.

Greatest Wealth

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

Man Errs, Till He Has Ceased To Strive.

Enjoy What Thou Has Inherited From Thy Sires If Thou Wouldn't Really Possess It. What We Employ And Use Is Never An Oppressive Burden; What The Moment Brings Forth, That Only Can It Profit By.

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.

Thought Expands, But Paralyzes; Action Animates, But Narrows.

It Is In The Half Fools And The Half Wise That The Greatest Danger Lies.

All Lyrical Work Must, As A Whole, Be Perfectly Intelligible, But In Some Particulars A Little Unintelligible.

One Is Never Deceived; One Deceives Oneself.

If Everyone Sweeps Before His Own Front Door, Then The Street Is Clean.

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

Man Is Made By His Belief. As He Believes, So He Is.

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

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.

Willing Is Not Enough, We Must Do.

A Mathematician Is Only Perfect Insofar As He Is A Perfect Man, Sensitive To The Beauty Of Truth.

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

We Talk Too Much. We Should Talk Less And Draw More.

There Are Situations In Which Hope And Fear Run Together, In Which They Mutually Destroy One Another And Lose Themselves In Dull Indifference.

I Will Be Lord Over Myself.

[nature's] Crown Is Love. Only Through Love Can We Come Near Her. She Puts Gulfs Between All Things, And All Things Strive To Be Interfused. She Isolates Everything, That She May Draw Everything Together. With A Few Draughts From The Cup Of Love She Repays For A Life Full Of Trouble.

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

We Eagerly Get Hold Of A Law That Serves As A Weapon To Our Passions.

One Glance, One Word From You Gives More Pleasure Than All The Wisdom Of This World.

Yet Here I Stand Poor Fool What More, Not One Wit Wiser Than Before.

Writing History Is A Method Of Getting Rid Of The Past.

Wild Dreams Torment Me As I Lie. And Though A God Lives In My Heart, Though All My Power Waken At His Word, Though He Can Move My Every Inmost Part - Yet Nothing In The Outer World Is Stirred. Thus By Existence Tortured And Oppressed I Crave For Death, I Long For Rest.

The Human Race Is A Monotonous Affair. Most People Spend The Greatest Part Of Their Time Working In Order To Live, And What Little Freedom Remains So Fills Them With Fear That They Seek Out Any And Every Means To Be Rid Of It.

I Am Fully Convinced That The Soul Is Indestructible, And Its Activity Will Continue Through Eternity.

I Will Say With Lorenzo De Medici That Those Who Do Not Hope For Another Life Are Always Dead To This One.

It Seems To Me That Every Phenomenon, Every Fact, Itself Is The Really Interesting Object. Whoever Explains It, Or Connects It With Other Events, Usually Only Amuses Himself Or Makes Sport Of Us, As, For Instance, The Naturalist Or Historian. But A Single Action Or Event Is Interesting, Not Because It Is Explainable, But Because It Is True.

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.

Only The Heart Without A Stain Knows Perfect Ease. [ger., Ganz Unbefleckt Geniesst Sich Nur Das Herz.]

One Lives But Once In The World.

The Bad Thing Is That Thinking About Thought Doesn't Help At All; One Has To Have It From Nature So That The Good Ideas Appear Before Us Like Free Children Of God Calling To Us: Here We Are.

Wer Fremde Sprachen Nicht Kennt, Weiss Nichts Von Seiner Eigenen.he Who Is Ignorant Of Foreign Languages, Knows Not His Own.

Foreign Language

Alas, I Have Studied Philosophy, The Law As Well As Medicine, And To My Sorrow, Theology; Studied Them Well With Ardent Zeal, Yet Here I Am, A Wretched Fool, No Wiser Than I Was Before.

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.]

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

It Seems To Never Occur To Fools That Merit And Good Fortune Are Closely United.

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

All The Knowledge I Possess Everyone Else Can Acquire, But My Heart Is All My Own.

To Think Is Easy. To Act Is Difficult. To Act As One Thinks Is The Most Difficult.

A Useless Life Is An Early Death.

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

When Two Men Quarrel, Who Owns The Cooler Head Is The More To Blame.

A Distracted Existence Leads Us To No Goal

People Of Uncommon Abilities Generally Fall Into Eccentricities When Their Sphere Of Life Is Not Adequate To Their Abilities.

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.

Go To Foreign Countries And You Will Get To Know The Good Things One Possesses At Home.

A Man Sees In The World What He Carries In His Heart.

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.

Normally, People Believe That, If They Hear Just Words, That These Words Must Lead To Some Thought.

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

The Fate Of The Architect Is The Strangest Of All. How Often He Expends His Whole Soul, His Whole Heart And Passion, To Produce Buildings Into Which He Himself May Never Enter.

The Beginning Of Faith Is The Beginning Of Fruitfulness; But The Beginning Of Unbelief, However Glittering, Is Empty.

The Solution Of Every Problem Is Another Problem

‎it Has Ever Been My Fate To Give Pain To Those Whose Happiness I Should Have Promoted.

True Works Of Art Are A Manifestation Of The Higher Laws Of Nature.

A Genuine Work Of Art Usually Displeases At First Sight, As It Suggests A Deficiency In The Spectator.

Music, In The Best Sense, Does Not Require Novelty; Nay, The Older It Is, And The More We Are Accustomed To It, The Greater Its Effect.

And We Went Our Separate Ways Without Having Understood Each Other. As In This World Nobody Understands The Other Easily.

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

Every Person Above The Ordinary Has A Certain Mission That They Are Called To Fulfill.

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.

You Must Be Either The Servant Or The Master, The Hammer Or The Anvil.

As Long As You Are Not Aware Of The Continual Law Of Die And Be Again, You Are Merely A Vague Guest On A Dark Earth.

The Most Congenial Social Occasions Are Those Ruled By Cheerful Deference Of Each For All.

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.]

The Master Proves Himselin Recognizing His Limitations.

Man Would Not Be The Finest Creature In The World If He Were Not Too Fine For It.

The Flowers Of Life Are But Illusions. How Many Fade Away And Leave No Trace.

Pain And Pleasure, Good And Evil, Come To Us From Unexpected Sources. It Is Not There Where We Have Gathered Up Our Brightest Hopes, That The Dawn Of Happiness Breaks. It Is Not There Where We Have Glanced Our Eye With Affright, That We Find The Deadliest Gloom. What Should This Teach Us? To Bow To The Great And Only Source Of Light, And Live Humbly And With Confiding Resignation.

A Man's Shortcomings Are Taken From His Epoch; His Virtues And Greatness Belong To Himself.

Divide And Rule, A Sound Motto. Unite And Lead, A Better One.

The Style Of Writing Required In The Great World Is Distinguished By A Free And Daring Grace, A Careless Security, A Fine And Sharp Polish, A Delicate And Perfect Taste; While That Fitted For The People Is Characterized By A Vigorous Natural Fulness, A Profound Depth Of Feeling, And An Engaging Naivete.

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.

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

Truth Is Contrary To Our Nature, Not So Error, And This For A Very Simple Reason: Truth Demands That We Should Recognize Ourselves As Limited, Error Flatters Us That, In One Way Or Another, We Are Unlimited.

Distance... Is Like Futurity. A Dim Vastness Is Spread Before Our Souls; The Perceptions Of Our Mind Are As Obscure As Those Of Our Vision... But Alas! When We Have Attained Our Object, When The Distant 'there' Becomes The Present 'here,' All Is Changed; We Are As Poor And Circumscribed As Ever, And Our Souls Still Languish For Unattainable Happiness.

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.

Kindness Is The Golden Thread That Holds Society Together.

True Religion Teaches Us To Reverence What Is Under Us, To Recognize Humility And Poverty, And, Despite Mockery And Disgrace, Wretchedness, Suffering, And Death, As Things Divine.

Suffering And Death

A World Without Love Would Be No World.

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

A Great Artist... Must Be Shaken By The Naked Truths That Will Not Be Comforted. This Divine Discontent, This Disequilibrium, This State Of Inner Tension Is The Source Of Artistic Energy.

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

Everything Which Is Properly Business We Must Keep Carefully Separate From Life. Business Requires Earnestness And Method; Life Must Have A Freed Handling.

There Are But Two Roads That Lead To An Important Goal And To The Doing Of Great Things: Strength And Perseverance. Strength Is The Lot Of But A Few Privileged Men; But Austere Perseverance, Harsh And Continuous, May Be Employed By The Smallest Of Us And Rarely Fails Of Its Purpose, For Its Silent Power Grows Irresistibly Greater With Time.

Death Is A Commingling Of Eternity With Time; In The Death Of A Good Man, Eternity Is Seen Looking Through Time.

Animals, We Have Been Told, Are Taught By Their Organs. Yes, I Would Add, And So Are Men, But Men Have This Further Advantage That They Can Also Teach Their Organs In Return.

It Would Be A Lowly Art That Allowed Itself To Be Understood All At Once.

Let Us Live, While We Are Alive!

When Ideas Fail, Words Come In Very Handy.

Stood I, O Nature! Man Alone In Thee, Then Were It Worth One's While A Man To Be.

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

Mastery Is Often Taken For Egotism.

It Has Been Said That Figures Rule The World. Maybe. But I Am Sure That Figures Show Us Whether It Is Being Ruled Well Or Badly.

Then To The Depths! - I Could As Well Say Height: It's All The Same.

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!

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.

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

And I Like Those Authors Best Whose Scenes Describe My Own Situation In Life-- And The Friends Who Are About Me Whose Stories Touch Me With Interest, From Resembling My Own Homely Existence.

Situations In Life

Fools And Wise Men Are Equally Harmless. It Is The Half-fools And Half-wise That Are Dangerous.

The March Of Intellect, Which Licks All The World Into Shape, Has Even Reached The Devil.

There Is Strong Shadow Where There Is Much Light.

No One Is Willing To Believe That Adults Too, Like Children, Wander About This Earth In A Daze And, Like Children, Do Not Know Where They Come From Or Where They Are Going, Act As Rarely As They Do According To Genuine Motives, And Are As Thoroughly Governed As They Are By Biscuits And Cake And The Rod.

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

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

I Wish The Crowd To Feel Itself Well Treated, Especially Since It Lives And Lets Me Live.

What We Don't Understand We Don't Possess.

Man Is Not Born To Solve The Problem Of The Universe, But To Find Out What He Has To Do; And To Restrain Himself Within The Limits Of His Comprehension.

That We Understand Something Perfectly, That We Accomplish Something Better Than Anyone Else Around Us, That Is What Matters.

And Step By Step, Along The Path Of Life, There's Nothing True But Heaven.

Unrest And Uncertainty Are Our Lot.

It Is In Self-limitation That A Master First Shows Himself.

Of All Thieves, Fools Are The Worst; They Rob You Of Time And Temper.

Instruction Does Much, But Encouragement Everything.

Treat People The Way They Are And They Will Stay That Way. Treat People The Way They Can Become And They Will Become That Way.

The World Is So Great And Rich, And Life So Full Of Variety, That You Can Never Lack Occasions For Poems.

Good Children's Literature Appeals Not Only To The Child In The Adult, But To The Adult In The Child.

A Vain Man Can Never Be Utterly Ruthless: He Wants To Win Applause And Therefore He Accommodates Himself To Others

Manners Form The Great Charm Of Women.

Writing Is Busy Idleness.

Time Itself Is An Element.

Life Teaches Us To Be Less Harsh With Ourselves And With Others.

Talents Are Nurtured Best In Solitude, But Character On Life's Tempestuous Seas!

A Man Must Cling To The Belief That The Incomprehensible Is Comprehensible; Otherwise He Would Not Try To Fathom It.

I Must Consider More Closely This Cycle Of Good And Bad Days Which I Find Coursing Within Myself. Passion, Attachment, The Urge To Action, Inventiveness, Performance, Order All Alternate And Keep Their Orbit; Cheerfulness, Vigor, Energy, Flexibility And Fatigue, Serenity As Well As Desire. Nothing Disturbs The Cycle For I Lead A Simple Life, But I Must Still Find The Time And Order In Which I Rotate.

The Ideal Of Beauty Is Simplicity And Tranquility.

Gray Are All The Theories, But Green Is The Tree Of Life.

He Who Is And Remains True To Himself And To Others Has The Most Attractive Quality Of The Greatest Talent.

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

Wanted: A Dog That Neither Barks Nor Bites, Eats Broken Glass And Shits Diamonds.

Sometimes Our Fate Resembles A Fruit Tree In Winter. Who Would Think That Those Branches Would Turn Green Again And Blossom, But We Hope It, We Know It.

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