Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes on God
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, scientist, and the towering figure of German Classicism. This page collects quotes attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on the topic of god, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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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 -
“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 -
“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 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