{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 68c/1909-11-28/p015","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"In other areas, we must establish this harmony, for example, in the knowledge of ourselves. We must find harmony in our knowledge of ourselves. “Know thyself” is often misunderstood. To reconcile our true self with knowledge of the world is self-knowledge, and it is part of the education of the human being to achieve that self-knowledge, which is selfless; to achieve justified selflessness so that the ego can pour itself out into the world again. Just don't brood! That hardens us. Self-knowledge is something that leads us to flourish. Otherwise we wither away as misfits, as pale envious people. If we seek the God only in us, we place ourselves in discord with the world. If we seek him in world knowledge, [we work outwardly], then there is a restorative equilibrium in our will impulses. This is an important law in relation to what we want. For nothing works as long as it remains within us, but only when it emerges from us. Then it works for our benefit when it [from outside] meets us in the mirror. These are the best conceivable deeds: to put out into the world what has been done. They are the invigorating ones. [A person can enrich his ego as long as the advancement of his own ego invigorates him.] The best deeds of the egoist, done for his own sake, do not further him. The moment egoism goes beyond a certain degree, it stifles the soul. Many are unsatisfied and desolate; many egoists live in withering. Egoism, overshooting its goal, turns against the egoist himself. When man crosses the boundary in the development of his ego, he becomes desolate. The egoist lives in withering. This would be more apparent if man did not live in an external society. We are interrelated, we human beings, and so the egoist does not bear the effects of his egoism alone; someone else must bear them too. For the egoist himself, this only expresses itself in karma.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"XXIX. The Essence of Egoism (Goethe's “Wilhelm Meister”)","site_heading":null,"date":"1909-11-28","location":null,"word_count":330,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68c/1909-11-28/p015","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Goethe and the Present","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068c/English/SOL2024/19091128p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68c/1909-11-28/p015"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68c/1909-11-28/p015","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 68c/1909-11-28/p015","passage_number":15,"text":"Auf anderem Gebiet [müssen] wir diese Harmonie [herstellen, zum Beispiel] in der Erkenntnis [unseres Selbst]. In unserer Erkenntnis selber müssen wir die Harmonie finden. «Erkenne dich selbst» wird oft falsch verstanden. [Unser wahres Selbst mit der] Welterkenntnis [in Einklang zu bringen], ist Selbsterkenntnis, ist ein Stück in der Erziehung des Menschen zu jener Selbsterkenntnis, welche selbstlos ist; zur berechtigten Selbstlosigkeit, sodass sich das Ich wieder ergießt in die Welt. Nur nicht in sich hineinbrüten! Das verhärtet. Selbsterkenntnis ist etwas, was uns dazu führt, aufzublühen. Sonst welken wir dahin als Sonderlinge, als blasse Neidlinge. Suchen wir den Gott nur in uns, so stellen wir uns in Missklang zu der Welt. Suchen wir ihn in der Welterkenntnis, [wirken wir nach außen], dann gibt es ein herstellendes Gleichgewicht in unseren Willensimpulsen. Das ist ein wichtiges Gesetz in Bezug auf das, was wir wollen. Denn nichts wirkt, solange es in unserem Innern bleibt, sondern erst, wenn es aus uns heraustritt. Dann wirkt es zu unserem Gedeihen, wenn es [von außen] im Spiegel uns entgegentritt. Das sind die bestdenkbaren Taten: hinauszusetzen in die Welt das Getane. Sie sind das Belebende. [So lange kann der Mensch sein Ich reich machen, als die Förderung des eigenen Ich ihn belebt.] Die besten Taten des Egoisten, seinetwegen getan, fördern ihn nicht. In dem Augenblick, wo der Egoismus einen gewissen Grad übersteigt, ertötet er die Seele. Viele sind unbefriedigt und verödet, viele Egoisten leben in der Verwelkung. Der Egoismus, der über sein Ziel hinausschießt, kehrt sich gegen den Egoisten selber. Wenn der Mensch in der Entfaltung seines Ichs die Grenze überschreitet, verödet er. [Der Egoist lebt in der Verwelkung.] Das würde mehr hervortreten, wenn der Mensch nicht in einer äußerlichen Gesellschaft lebte. Wir stehen in einem Zusammenhang, wir Menschen, und so trägt hier nicht der Egoist die Wirkung seines Egoismus, sondern ein anderer muss sie tragen. Für den Egoisten selbst drückt sich dies erst im Karma aus.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":317,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68c/1909-11-28/p015"}],"english":["GA 68c/1909-11-28/p015"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":317,"en_words":330,"ratio":1.04,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.08,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":2740,"original_word_count":2543,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Goethe and the Present","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068c/English/SOL2024/19091128p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 68c/1909-11-28/p015"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}