Top 500 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “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

402. “To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence – – this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

403. “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

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

406. “Many hammer all over the wall and believe that with each blow they hit the nail on the head.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

407. “Make the most of time, it flies away so fast; yet method will teach you to win time.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

408. “Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

409. “There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe; it is always in the light, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful, and the pure.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

410. “Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

411. “Wishes are premonitions of abilities.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

412. “Give me those days with heart in riot, The depths of bliss that touched on pain, The force of hate, and love’s disquiet- Ah, give me back my youth again!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

413. “The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

414. “A good man, through obscurest aspirations Has still an instinct of the one true way.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

415. “My poor head is in such a whirl, my mind is all in bits.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

416. “Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

417. “There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another and lose themselves in dull indifference.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

418. “The Bible grows more beautiful, as we grow in our understanding of it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

419. “To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

420. “Mystery is truth’s dancing partner.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

421. “The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

422. “The Beginning and end of all literary activity is the reproduction of the world that surrounds me by means of the world that is in me, all things being grasped, related, recreated, molded, and reconstructed in a personal form and original manner.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

423. “If there is confusion in your head and in your heart, what more do you want! A man who no longer loves and no longer errs should have himself buried straight away.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

424. “If the mass of people hesitate to act, strike with swiftly and with boldness, the brave heart that understands and seizes opportunity can everything.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

425. “Music is so elevated that it is beyond the reach of intellect and there flows from it an influence which is all-potent, and which noone can explain.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

426. “Be valiant and powerful forces will come to your aid.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

427. “If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

428. “The greatest act of faith takes place when a man finally decides that he is not God.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

429. “These auspicious aspects, which the astrologers subsequently interpreted for me, may have been the causes of my preservation.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

430. “It is working within limits that the craftsman reveals himself.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

431. “A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

432. “To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

433. “Colour itself is a degree of darkness...”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

434. “Time flies, and what is past is done.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

435. “Is it life, I ask, is it even prudence, To bore thyself and bore the students?”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

436. “So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

437. “We can most safely achieve truly universal tolerance when we respect that which is characteristic in the individual and in nations, clinging, though, to the conviction that the truly meritorious is unique by belonging to all of mankind.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

438. “One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn’t every nationhave its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

439. “The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

440. “The eye doesn’t see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

441. “Where I cannot be moral, my power is gone.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

442. “Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

443. “Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

445. “The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

446. “The soul-stirring image of death is no bugbear to the sage, and is looked on without despair by the pious. It teaches the former to live, and it strengthens the hopes of the latter in salvation in the midst of distress. Death is new life to both.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

447. “Superstition is part of the poetry of life.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

448. “If you call a thing bad you do little, if you call a thing good you do much.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

449. “What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit; Whats genuine, shall posterity inherit.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe