Top 500 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “One man’s word is no man’s word; we should quietly hear both sides.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

352. “For the butterfly, mating and propagation involve the sacrifice of life, for the human being, the sacrifice of beauty.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

353. “Reality surpasses imagination; and we see, breathing, brightening, and moving before our eyes sights dearer to our hearts than any we ever beheld in the land of sleep.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

354. “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

355. “There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

356. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

360. “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

361. “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

362. “Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

365. “All understanding begins in wonder!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

367. “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

368. “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

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. “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

371. “Chess is the touchstone of intellect.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

373. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

375. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

379. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

381. “When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

382. “Patriotism ruins history.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

387. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

390. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

392. “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

393. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

395. “Architecture is crystallized music.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

397. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

399. “The unnatural, that too is natural.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe