Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was the greatest icon in the German literary and cultural pantheon. This master of world literature was a polymath: not only was he a poet, novelist, playwright, historian, and natural philosopher, but he also held several government positions at Weimar and made scientific discoveries.

Goethe gained early fame with his first novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774; The Sorrows of Young Werther.) Written as a collection of letters by the protagonist, this sentimental epistolary novel tells the story of a young man who falls in love with a woman engaged to another man.

Goethe also wrote hundreds of essays, many volumes of lyric poetry, and an in-depth dissertation on the physics of light and color contrasting his theories against Newton’s.

Goethe is most famous for his magnum opus Faust, published as Faust, Part One (1808) and Faust, Part Two (1832.) Goethe started writing Faust at age 23 and finished it a few months before his death six decades later. This two-part poetic drama is based on a classic German legend, which in turn is based on an actual magician who lived in northern Germany in the fifteenth century.

Goethe’s Faust tells the story of a brilliant scholar named Heinrich Faust, who is very successful yet unhappy in life. He forsakes God, makes a dangerous deal with the Devil, and exchanges his soul for unlimited power, knowledge, and worldly pleasures. Celebrated for its themes of damnation, witchcraft, sexual betrayal, and freeform philosophic contemplation, Faust is considered one of the greatest works of German literature.

Appreciation for Goethe and his works throughout Europe and America added much to the dissemination of German culture worldwide, with significant effects on scholarship, education, and philosophy, as well as literature throughout the 19th century.

In addition to his literary work, Goethe was also a geologist, botanist, anatomist, physicist, and science historian. His most notable scientific contributions include his theory of plant metamorphosis and his theory of colors.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Ignorance, One liners, Fools, Defects

It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Fear, Peculiarity, Oddity

I don’t know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: War

Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Character, Talent

To rule is easy, to govern difficult
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Government

A vain man can never be utterly ruthless: he wants to win applause and therefore he accommodates himself to others
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Applause

A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Self Respect, Self-Esteem

The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Knowledge

And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Revolutions, Revolution, Revolutionaries

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
Topics: Happiness

There is something magical in rhythm; it even makes us believe that we possess the sublime.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Say nothing of yourself, either good, bad, or indifferent; nothing good, for that is vanity; nothing bad, for that is affectation; nothing indifferent, for that is silly.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one’s self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Leadership, Leaders

Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Character, Solitude, Talent

In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from side to side, thinking they will be more comfortable.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Politics

Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Science

When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Society, Husbands, Marriage

If any man wishes to write a clear style, let him first be clear in his thoughts.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Authors & Writing, Writers

Mathematicians are like Frenchman: whatever you say to them they translate Into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Science, Mathematics

After fifteen minutes nobody looks at a rainbow
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One is led astray alike by sympathy and coldness, by praise and by blame.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Wealth

We will always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Time

The most foolish of all errors is for clever young men to believe that they forfeit their originality in recognizing a truth which has already been recognized by others.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility, poverty, wretchedness, suffering, and death, as things divine.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Religion

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
Topics: Nature

Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Self-love

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Ability

He who is firm and resolute in will moulds the world to himself.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man’s nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Superstition

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