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About this quote

What does it mean?
Aging brings tolerance because we recognize that any fault we see in others could be ours.
In plain terms
Getting older makes us more forgiving.
What can you take from it?
Remember your own fallibility before judging.

Where it applies

  • conflicts
  • judgmental thoughts

Putting it to work

  • practice self‑reflection
  • pause before criticism

Questions to consider

  • How does your own experience shape your judgment of others?
  • Can you recall a time you judged someone you later realized you could have done the same?

Another view

Not everyone ages in the same way, so tolerance may not increase uniformly.

More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  1. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

    Permalink to quote #127
  2. Only when we know little do we know anything; doubt grows with knowledge.

    Permalink to quote #129
  3. Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

    Permalink to quote #126

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