A miniature brick house with a green door stands among small figures wearing pointed paper hats.

Original artwork, not a still

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The world is so full of simpletons and madmen, that one need not seek them in a madhouse.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker argues that foolishness and madness are so common you don't need an institution to find them. They turn up everywhere in ordinary life. It's a wry, sceptical view of human behaviour, using the madhouse as the joke: the real thing is out in the open.

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