Top 500 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “Where the light is brightest, the shadows are deepest.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

152. “Art is a mediator of the unspeakable.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

153. “That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

154. “Over all the mountain tops is peace. In all treetops you perceive scarcely a breath. The little birds in the forest are silent. Wait then; soon, you too, will have peace.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

155. “You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

156. “The eternal feminine draws us up.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

157. “It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

158. “People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

159. “All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

160. “Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

161. “Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

162. “Only law can give us freedom.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

163. “Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

164. “All is born of water; all is sustained by water.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

165. “Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

166. “It is not enough to have knowledge; one must apply it. It is not enough to have wishes; one must also accomplish it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

167. “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

168. “Rest not Life is sweeping by go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

169. “The world only goes forward because of those who oppose it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

170. “Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

171. “Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

172. “A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

173. “A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

174. “In the end we are all separate: our stories, no matter how similar, come to a fork and diverge. We are drawn to each other because of our similarities, but it is our differences we must learn to respect.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

175. “Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

176. “Man knows himself only insofar as he knows the world, becoming aware of it if only within himself, and of himself self only within it. Each new subject, well observed, opens up within us a new organ of thought.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

177. “Once you have missed the first buttonhole, you’ll never manage to button up.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

178. “Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

179. “Alas, I have studied philosophy, the law as well as medicine, and to my sorrow, theology; studied them well with ardent zeal, yet here I am, a wretched fool, no wiser than I was before.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

180. “National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten thearrival of that age.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

181. “The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

182. “Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

183. “Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and the we’ll need no other light.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

184. “All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

185. “Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

186. “Mere curiosity adds wings to every step.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

187. “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

188. “It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

189. “Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

190. “The history of mankind is his character.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

191. “To the world you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world. Kindness is the golden chain by which our world is bound together.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

192. “When you lose interest in anything, you also lose the memory for it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

193. “To accept good advice is but to increase one’s own ability.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

194. “Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

195. “When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

196. “A person hears only what they understand.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

197. “Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

198. “Blood is a very special juice.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

199. “He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

200. “It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe