What does this German quote mean?

Question

Wo kämen wir hin, wenn jeder sagte, wo kämen wir hin und keiner ginge, um zu sehen, wohin wir kämen, wenn wir gingen.

Answer 1

I am living in germany now, so this is what it means... It dosen't really make sence...

'Where we would get if everyone said, where would get we and none would go in order to see where we would come, if we went...'

weird saying... where'd ya get it from?

Answer 2

how bout this one die richstag ien slammen

Answer 3

Where would we go, if everyone said where would we go and no one went to see where we would go if we went.

It's a saying indicating that it is better to get on with living life by going forward than wondering might be.

Answer 4

It´s almost impossible to translate that one properly..

"Wo kaemen wir hin?" is an outcry given by people who express disbelief and anger about somebody doing something improper. Such as "where would it lead us... if everybody stopped giving tips?", "where would it lead us... if everybody didn´t pay for their bus tickets" etc.

So the first part goes: "where would it lead us, if everybody said: "where would it lead us" - until there.

Last part goes: ".. and nobody actually went to check where it WOULD lead us IF we went".

No this is taking this angered outcry literally, first of all. "Where would it lead us...." is something people say, implying that what has been done is improper and WOULD/could have bad consequences if it was the rule, if everybody did it etc. Now this sentence implies that the people who use this phrase don´t actually think about the consequences - and the person who you got that saying from wants to make you think about whether it would actually be as bad as the "where would it lead us..."-asker is suggesting it is.

Bit complicated, hope you got it. =)