Top 500 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “Hatred is a heavy burden. It sinks the heart deep in the breast, and lies like a tombstone on all joys.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

352. “Happy the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

353. “The best is the deep quiet in which I live and grow against the world, and harvest what they cannot take from me by fire or sword.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

354. “I treat my heart like a sick child and gratify its every fancy.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

355. “There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans, that the moment one definitely commits oneself that Providence moves, too. Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

356. “Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

357. “What you desire when young, you have in abundance when old.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

358. “A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

359. “Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

360. “Nothing will change the fact that I cannot produce the least thing without absolute solitude.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

361. “It matters little whether a man be mathematically or philologically or artistically cultivated, so he be but cultivated.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

362. “When translating one must proceed up to the intranslatable; only then one becomes aware of the foreign nation and the foreign tongue.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

363. “We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

364. “There is no truer, warmer pleasure in this world than to behold a great soul opening up towards oneself.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

365. “He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

366. “There is no permanence in doubt; it incites the mind to closer inquiry and experiment, from which, if rightly managed, certainty proceeds, and in this alone can man find thorough satisfaction.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

367. “We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

368. “In art, the best is good enough.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

369. “As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Featured in: Real Quotes

370. “One man’s word is no man’s word; we should quietly hear both sides.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

372. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

374. “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

375. “No one has ever properly understood me, I have never fully understood anyone; and no one understands anyone else.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

377. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Featured in: Tattoo Quotes

379. “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

380. “Let no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each one perfect in himself.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Featured in: Meaning of Life Quotes

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

383. “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

384. “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

385. “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

386. “Chess is the touchstone of intellect.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

387. “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

388. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

390. “Alles nahe werde fern.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

395. “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

396. “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

397. “Patriotism ruins history.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe