Top 500 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “The light is there, and colors surround us. However, if there were no light nor colors in our own eye, we wouldn’t perceive such things outside of us.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

352. “Let us live, while we are alive!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

353. “If you wish a wise answer, you must put a rational question.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

354. “To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

355. “Keep not standing fixed and rooted. Briskly venture, briskly roam.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

356. “The nude is the perfect expression of freedom. Freedom to be.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

357. “When I say to the Moment flying; ‘Linger a while – thou art so fair!’ Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

358. “When Nature begins to reveal her open secret to a man, he feels an irresistible longing for her worthiest interpreter, Art.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

359. “Shakespeare is a great psychologist, and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

360. “Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

361. “Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

362. “In comradeship is danger countered best.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

363. “All understanding begins in wonder!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

364. “Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

365. “Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

366. “The rainbow mirrors human aims and action. Think, and more clearly wilt thou grasp it, seeing Life is but light in many-hued reflection.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

367. “It’s true that nothing in this world makes us so necessary to others as the affection we have for them.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

368. “Every step of life shows much caution is required.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

369. “Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

370. “Let us seek to fathom those things that are fathomable and reserve those things which are unfathomable for reverence in quietude.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

371. “Chess is the touchstone of intellect.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

372. “There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must only try to think it again.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

373. “Wherever a man may happen to turn, whatever a man may undertake, he will always end up by returning to that path which nature has marked out for him.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

374. “One glance, one word from you gives more pleasure than all the wisdom of this world.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

375. “Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

376. “It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. But I am sure that figures show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

377. “Sin writes histories, goodness is silent.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

378. “Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

379. “Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

380. “Belief is not the beginning of knowledge – it is the end.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

381. “Water its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

382. “There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

383. “Patriotism ruins history.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

384. “Art is long, life is short; judgement difficult, opportunity transient.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

385. “Let no one be ashamed to say yes today if yesterday he said no. Or to say no today if yesterday he said yes. For that is life. Never to have changed-what a pitiable thing of which to boast!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

386. “War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

387. “When you praise someone you call yourself his equal.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

388. “Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

389. “One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

390. “Even dirt glitters when the sun is shining upon it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

391. “Personality is everything in art and poetry.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

392. “Battle not with monsters, for then you become one.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

393. “I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

394. “If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

395. “Architecture is crystallized music.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

396. “Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, in fear of getting burned.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

397. “Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

398. “What is predestination? Answer: God is more powerful and wiser than we are, therefore he deals with us according to his pleasure.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

399. “What people call the spirit of the times is mostly their own spirit in which the times mirror themselves.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

400. “Once more I am a wanderer, a pilgrim, through the world. But what else are you?”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe