Classic German Aphorisms for the New Year

Are you bored with the same old clichés every year about the upcoming year? Let's go "back to the future" and take a look at some original aphorisms from classic German authors, followed up with a word from the aphorism used in another context in a Yabla video:

Wird's besser? Wird’s schlimmer? fragt man alljährlich.

Seien wir ehrlich: Leben ist immer lebensgefährlich!

Will it get better? Will it get worse? You ask every year.

Let's be honest: Life is always life-threatening!

Erich Kästner (1899–1974)

Ein paar Jahre zuvor wäre das noch lebensgefährlich gewesen.

A few years prior, this would still have been life-threatening.

Caption 14, Curly Horses - Pferdeglück auch für Allergiker
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Ich kann freilich nicht sagen, ob es besser wird, wenn es anders wird,

Aber soviel kann ich sagen: Es muss anders werden, wenn es gut werden soll.

I cannot say, of course, if it will be better when it is different,

But this much I can say: It must be different, if it is going to get better.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799)

Ja, freilich! So machen wir das, jedes Jahr aufs Neue.

Yes, of course! We do it like this every year again and again.

Caption 17, München - Krampuslauf auf dem Christkindlmarkt
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Gut ist der Vorsatz, aber die Erfüllung ist schwer.

Good is the resolution, but the fulfillment is difficult.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

Die Arbeit mit den Tieren ist die Erfüllung eines Lebenstraums.

The work with the animals is the fulfillment of a life's dream.

Caption 62, Für Tierfreunde - Falknerei Feldberg
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Learning Suggestions:

The "Happy New Year!" greeting is different in different parts of Germany: Frohes neues Jahr (Northern Hesse); Frohes neues (Middle Rhein and Hesse); Gesundes neues Jahr (Eastern Germany); Gesundes neues (Dresden region); Gutes neues Jahr (Austria); Gutes neues (Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland and parts of Bavaria); Prosit Neujahr (Eastern Austria, Vienna); and Prost Neujahr (parts of Western Germany). But are you familiar with the German New Year's greeting "Ich wünsche dir einen guten Rutsch"? See last year's Yabla German Lesson Rutsch and rutschen: A Good “Slide” into the New Year! to find out more! ou can also read something by the authors quoted above. For beginners, Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektive makes for a fun read. Readers of all levels can enjoy the many clever sayings of physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who is known as the father of the German aphorism. For the very advanced, there is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, which is considered the most important work in all of German literature.