Diskussion:Athaumasie

Tout comprendre, c’est tout pardonner

Proverb of uncertain origin – perhaps a commonplace for centuries? This precise formulation is used by Tolstoy in War and Peace (1868), vol. 1, part 1, chapter 28 (the last in this book: chapter-numbering varies) and by Theodor Fontane in a letter to his wife dated 18 August 1876 – in both cases without attribution. Approximations to it (see Georg Büchmann, Geflügelte Wörte [und Zitatenschatz], s.v. ‘tout’: but his account is incomplete) appear, in chronological order, in Goethe, Torquato Tasso (1790), act 2, scene 1, line 1113 (‘was wir verstehen, das können wir nicht tadeln’); Madame de Staël, Corinne ou l’Italie (1807), book 18, chapter 5 (‘tout comprendre rend très-indulgent’); Goethe, ‘Derb und Tüchtig’, in Westöstlicher Divan (1819) (‘Denn wer einmal uns versteht / Wird uns auch verzeihn’); and Theodor Fontane, Frau Jenny Treibel (1892), chapter 7 (‘comprendre c’est pardonner’), where it is attributed to George Sand without reference (probably in error, says one of Fontane’s editors, without giving a reason). [1] (nicht signierter Beitrag von 84.41.34.154 (Diskussion) 03:32, 14. Aug. 2011 (CEST))