Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a German polymath and writer, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
1. “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2. “Everything is hard before it is easy.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
4. “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5. “Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
6. “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
7. “Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
8. “At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
9. “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
10. “Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
11. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
12. “Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
13. “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
14. “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
15. “To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
16. “A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
17. “Life is too short to drink bad wine.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
18. “Willing is not enough, we must do.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
19. “Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
20. “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
21. “Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
22. “Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
23. “The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
24. “Doubt can only be removed by action.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
25. “Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
26. “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiation – creation – there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans…”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
27. “Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
28. “Do not hurry; do not rest.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
29. “If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
30. “Every second is of infinite value.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
31. “Just trust yourself and you’ll learn the art of living.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
32. “The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
33. “If you want to make life easy, make it hard.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
34. “He who moves not forward, goes backward.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
35. “Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. – Without haste, but without rest.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
36. “The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
37. “Enjoy what you can, endure what you must.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
38. “Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
39. “This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
40. “The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
41. “Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
42. “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
43. “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
44. “Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
45. “One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
46. “Precaution is better than cure.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
47. “Money lost, something lost. Honor lost, much lost. Courage lost, everything lost-better you were never born.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
48. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
49. “When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
50. “Wisdom is found only in truth.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
51. “None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
52. “In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
53. “Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
54. “Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
55. “To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
56. “The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
57. “It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
58. “We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
59. “To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
60. “To quit smoking, you must first want to quit, but then you must also do the quitting.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
61. “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
62. “There is strong shadow where there is much light.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
63. “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
64. “Leap and the net will appear.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
65. “Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
66. “He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
67. “He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
68. “Few people have the imagination for reality.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
69. “One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
70. “Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
71. “Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
72. “The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
73. “Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
74. “There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
75. “Treat a person as they are, they will remain so. Treat a person the way that person can be and is capable of being and that person will become as he or she can be and should be.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
76. “Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
77. “Treat people the way they are and they will stay that way. Treat people the way they can become and they will become that way.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
78. “What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
79. “Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading, in part, some great book.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
80. “We see only what we know.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
81. “Live dangerously and you live right.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
82. “If I love you, what business is it of yours?”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
83. “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
84. “Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
85. “We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
86. “Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
87. “One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
88. “Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
89. “It is not enough to take steps which may someday lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
90. “The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and the determination to attain it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
91. “The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
92. “There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one’s self on lies and fables.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
93. “I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
94. “If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
95. “Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
96. “All our knowledge is symbolic.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
98. “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
99. “It is delivery that makes the orators success.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
100. “Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
101. “The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
102. “The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
103. “There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
104. “Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never spent the darksome hours Weeping, and watching for the morrow,- He knows you not, ye heavenly Powers.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
105. “Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
106. “Es irrt der Mensch, so lang er strebt. Man errs as long as he strives.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
107. “To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them – that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
108. “God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
109. “No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
110. “By seeking and blundering we learn.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
111. “Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
112. “It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
113. “You don’t have to travel around the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
114. “We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
115. “Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
116. “He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
117. “All that is transitory is but a metaphor.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
118. “If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
119. “All beginnings are delightful; the threshold is the place to pause.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
120. “Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
121. “Try novelties for salesman’s bait, for novelty wins everyone.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
122. “There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
123. “I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
124. “Stood I, O Nature! man alone in thee, Then were it worth one’s while a man to be.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
125. “A useless life is an early death.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
126. “Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
127. “Nature is the living, visible garment of God.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
128. “In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
129. “Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
130. “We always hope, and in all things it is better to hope than to despair.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
131. “Those who have no hope for a future life are already dead for the present one.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
132. “Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
133. “This is the true measure of love, When we believe that we alone can love, That no one could ever have loved so before us, And that no one will ever love in the same way after us.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
134. “Nothing is worse than active ignorance.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
135. “Doubt grows with knowledge.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
136. “A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
137. “To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed That can make life a garden.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
138. “A joy shared is a joy doubled.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
139. “The coward only threatens when he is safe.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
140. “Hell begins the day that God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
141. “The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
142. “When one is polite in German, one lies.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
143. “It is the nature of grace always to fill spaces that have been empty.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
144. “To rule is easy, to govern difficult.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
145. “Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
146. “On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
147. “Method will teach you to win time.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
148. “Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
149. “There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
150. “I love those who yearn for the impossible.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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. “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
154. “You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
155. “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
156. “It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
157. “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
158. “All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
159. “Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
160. “Only law can give us freedom.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
161. “Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
162. “All is born of water; all is sustained by water.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
163. “Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
164. “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
165. “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
166. “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
167. “The world only goes forward because of those who oppose it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
168. “Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
169. “A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
170. “That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
171. “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
172. “Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
173. “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
174. “The eternal feminine draws us up.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
175. “Once you have missed the first buttonhole, you’ll never manage to button up.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
176. “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
177. “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
178. “Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
179. “The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
180. “Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and the we’ll need no other light.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
181. “Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
182. “All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
183. “A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
184. “Mere curiosity adds wings to every step.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
185. “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
186. “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
187. “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
188. “The history of mankind is his character.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
189. “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
190. “When you lose interest in anything, you also lose the memory for it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
191. “To accept good advice is but to increase one’s own ability.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
192. “Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
193. “Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
194. “When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
195. “A person hears only what they understand.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
196. “Blood is a very special juice.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
197. “Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
198. “He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
199. “Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.”
— 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
