Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, scientist, and the towering figure of German Classicism. His novel The Sorrows of Young Werther made him famous across Europe at twenty-five, and his lifelong labor on the verse drama Faust produced one of the great works of European literature. The quotes below are attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, organized by topic.
Browse Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by topic
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Knowledge
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Mind
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Death
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on God
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Justice
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Life
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Time
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Virtue
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Love
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Death
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“The folly! Every man in turn would still His own peculiar notions magnify! If Islam mean submission to God’s will, May we all live in Islam, and all die.”
West–östlicher Divan(West–Eastern Diwan)(1819/1827) | The West–Eastern Divan , translated by Edward Dowden, VI. Book of Maxims, p. 86. -
“Wer nichts wagt, gerwinnt nichts. Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß, Wer nie die kummervollen Nächte Auf seinem Bette weinend saß, Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Mächte.”
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre(Apprenticeship)(1786–1830) | Nothing venture, nothing gain. Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate, Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours Weeping upon his bed has sate, He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers. Bk. II, Ch. 13; translation -
“Die Kunst ist lang, das Leben kurz, das Urteil schwierig, die Gelegenheit flüchtig.”
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre(Apprenticeship)(1786–1830) | Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient. Bk. VII, Ch. 9 Cf. Hippocrates , Ars longa vita brevis , Aphorisms 1:1 -
“Es gibt kein äußeres Zeichen der Höflichkeit, das nicht einen tiefen sittlichen Grund hätte. Die rechte Erziehung wäre, welche dieses Zeichen und den Grund zugleich überlieferte.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | There is no outward mark of politeness that does not have a profound moral reason. The right education would be that which taught the outward mark and the moral reason together. Bk. II, Ch. 5, R. J. H -
“Wenn die Menschen recht schlecht werden, haben sie keinen Anteil mehr als die Schadenfreude.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | People have to become really bad before they care for nothing but mischief, and delight in it. -
“Man sagt: „Studire, Künstler, die Natur!” Es ist aber keine Kleinigkeit, aus dem Gemeinen das Edle, aus der Unform das Schöne zu entwickeln.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | People say, “Artist, study nature!” But it is no small matter to develop what is noble out of what is common, beauty out of what lacks form. Maxim 191, trans. Stopp
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on God
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“I hold to faith in the divine love — which, so many years ago for a brief moment in a little corner of the earth, walked about as a man bearing the name of Jesus Christ — as the foundation on which alone my happiness rests.”
(1773), translated by Albert Schweizer in Goethe: Five Studies (1961), Beacon Press, p. 53 -
“Wer Wissenschaft und Kunst besitzt, / Hat auch Religion / Wer jene beiden nicht besitzt / Der habe Religion”
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre(Apprenticeship)(1786–1830) | Who science has and art He has religion too Who neither of them owns Religion is his due. As quoted in Jost Lemmerich's "Science and Conscience: The Life of James Franck" (2011), p. 261. Variant trans -
“Is it so big a mystery what god and man and world are? No! but nobody knows how to solve it so the mystery hangs on.”
Venetian Epigrams(1790) | As translated by Jerome Rothenberg -
“The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his whole heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. II, Ch. 3
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Happiness
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“He alone is great and happy who fills his own station of independence, and has neither to command nor to obey. [ 1 ]”
So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein! -
“A thinking man's greatest happiness is to have fathomed what can be fathomed and to revere in silence what cannot be fathomed.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 1207, trans. Stopp ( p153 ) Variant translation: The greatest happiness for the thinking man is to have fathomed the fathomable, and to quietly revere the unfathomable.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Justice
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“There is no outward mark of politeness that does not have a profound moral reason. The right education would be that which taught the outward mark and the moral reason together.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. II, Ch. 5, R. J. Hollingdale , trans. (1971), p. 195 -
“Variant translation: He who maintains he's right—if his the gift of tongues— Will have the last word certainly.”
Faust, Part 1(1808) | Faust and Gretchen. A Street -
“Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it be securely founded; that it be successfully executed.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. I, Ch. 9 -
“Once a man's thirty, he's already old, He is indeed as good as dead. It's best to kill him right away.”
Faust, Part 2(1832) | Act II, The Gothic Chamber
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Knowledge
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Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
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“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit. -
“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.”
Letter to A. F. Oeser (9 November 1768), Early and miscellaneous letters of J. W. Goethe, including letters to his mother. With notes and a short biography (1884) | Alternative translation: "Correction does much, but encouragement does more. -
“Alternative translation: "Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”
Instruction does much, but encouragement everything. -
“Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.”
There is strong shadow where there is much light . Götz von Berlichingen , Act I (1773) -
“There is strong shadow where there is much light . Götz von Berlichingen , Act I (1773)”
Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten. -
“So gewiß ist der allein glücklich und groß, der weder zu herrschen noch zu gehorchen braucht, um etwas zu sein!”
He alone is great and happy who fills his own station of independence, and has neither to command nor to obey. [ 1 ] | Alternative translation: So certain is it that he alone is great and happy, who requires neither to command nor to obey, in order to secure his being of some importance in the world. [ 2 ] Götz von Berlichingen , Act I (1773), p. 39 -
“What wise or stupid thing can man conceive That was not thought of in ages long ago?”
Faust, Part 2(1832) | Act II, The Gothic Chamber -
“Scientific knowledge helps us mainly because it makes the wonder to which we are called by nature rather more intelligible.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 417, trans. Stopp -
“No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. II, Ch. 4 -
“Those who cannot draw conclusions From three thousand years of learning Stay naïve in dark confusions Day to day live undiscerning.”
West–östlicher Divan(West–Eastern Diwan)(1819/1827) | Book V (Rendsch Nameh), sec. XV -
“I know a little of navigation: / War, trade, and piracy, allow, / As three in one, no separation.”
Faust, Part 2(1832) | Act V, Scene 3
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Life
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Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
“He who moves not forward, goes backward.”
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“Tell me you stones, O speak, you towering palaces ! Streets, say a word! Spirit of this place, are you dumb? All things are alive in your sacred walls Eternal Rome, it's only for me all is still.”
Roman Elegies(1789) | Elegy 1 -
“To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence — this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.”
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre(Apprenticeship)(1786–1830) | Bk. VII, Ch. 5
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Love
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Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
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“Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though she were still in love.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 246, trans. Stopp
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Mind
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Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
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“There's nothing clever that hasn't been thought of before — you've just got to try to think it all over again.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 441, trans. Stopp Variant translation: All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again. -
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.”
Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre(Journeyman Years)(1821–1829) | Variant: All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Nature
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“People say, “Artist, study nature!” But it is no small matter to develop what is noble out of what is common, beauty out of what lacks form.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 191, trans. Stopp
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Time
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“What dazzles, for the Moment spends its spirit: What's genuine, shall Posterity inherit.”
Faust, Part 1(1808) | Prelude on the Stage -
“Everything that liberates our mind without at the same time imparting self-control is pernicious.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 504, trans. Stopp Variant translation: Everything that emancipates the spirit without giving us control over ourselves is harmful. -
“The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. I, Ch. 9 -
“Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look round.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. II, Ch. 4
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Truth
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“Age does not make us childish, as they say. It only finds us true children still.”
Faust, Part 1(1808) | Prelude on the Stage
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Virtue
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Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
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“Behavior is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.”
Maxim 39, trans. Stopp | Variant translation: A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Things actually not said by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe but are in fact from someone else. Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say this? No.
“Reden ist uns ein Bedürfnis, Zuhören ist eine Kunst.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Talking is a necessity, listening is an art. | According to http://falschzitate.blogspot.de/2017/04/reden-ist-uns-ein-bedurfnis-zuhoren-ist.html pure invention.
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Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say this? No.
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed to Zig Ziglar
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Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say this? No.
“He is a prophet and not a poet and therefore his Koran is to be seen as Divine Law, and not as a book of a human being made for education or entertainment.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: On Muhammad , in Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Noten und Abhandlungen zum West-östlichen Diwan (1958), WA I, 7, 32; translator unknown. Actual quotation in context: "He [Muhammad] vehemently asserts and protests that he is a prophet and not a poet; furthermore, that his Qur'an is to be regarded as divine
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Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say this? No.
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed to Goethe by popular British novelist Marie Corelli in her essay "The Spirit of Work" as published in The Queen's Christmas carol : an anthology of poems, stories, essays, drawings and music / by British authors, artists and composers in 1905 by The Daily Mail of London. | Attributed to G
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Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say this? No.
“They abandon themselves credulously to every fanatic scoundrel who speaks to their baser qualities, confirms them in their vices, teaches them nationality means barbarism and isolation.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed to Goethe by German novelist Thomas Mann in his novel The Beloved Returns . The line was Mann's invention, though it was later quoted during the Nuremburg trials by prosecutor Sir Hartley Shawcross , who quoted the passage as if it truly had been written by Goethe. [ 7 ]
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Did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say this? No.
“Encourage the beautiful, the useful will take care of itself.”
widely attributed to Goethe without citation from the works of Goethe (Disputed.)