From: Christian Weisgerber (naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de)
Date: Wed Jul 14 1999 - 03:39:32 MDT
O'Regan, Emlyn <Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au> wrote:
> I'm looking for the original german (if it is german) for "Your thoughts are
> free", or whatever the famous phrase is.
"Die Gedanken sind frei."
> I don't even know who said it,
That's apparently complicated. According to the Duden volume on
famous quotes it's the first line in a song in the collection _Des
Knaben Wanderhorn_ (1806-1808) by Achim von Arnim and Clemens
Brentano. Later it was referenced in Joseph von Eichendorff's poem
"Verschwiegene Liebe". I guess the latter source popularized it.
I think you can safely assume that it is quoted well out of context
nowadays, like many of these bon mots are.
-- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de
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