“Old truths keep their force for him who has not seen them before” was once said by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German poet from about the same time of Marx. The meaning of this quote is with a proverb like “measure twice, cut once” may seem old, but to someone who never learned it, the advice prevents waste and teaches care. The truth “keeps their force.”
In other words, just because an idea is old does not make it invalid.
Just because an idea is old doesn’t make it valid either.
See for example:
As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
“Old truths keep their force for him who has not seen them before” was once said by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German poet from about the same time of Marx. The meaning of this quote is with a proverb like “measure twice, cut once” may seem old, but to someone who never learned it, the advice prevents waste and teaches care. The truth “keeps their force.”
In other words, just because an idea is old does not make it invalid.
Just because an idea is old doesn’t make it valid either.
See for example:
Well, duh? What is your point? I didn’t say it was good because it is old. It was you who implied it was invalid because it was from the 1850’s.
No, I said: “Sage advice… for the 1850s.”
Whether it’s currently sage advice is debatable.