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

‘When we take people,’ thou wouldst say, ‘merely as they are, we make them worse; when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve them as far as they can be improved.’
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Respect

Nature goes on her way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Nature

I do not speak of what I cannot praise.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Speaking, Speakers

Love has power to give in a moment what toil can scarcely reach in an age.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is the great triumph of genius to make the common appear novel.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Doing

Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Unhappiness, Men

There is no outward sign of true courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Courtesy

The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Heroes/Heroism, Heroism, Heroes

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Action, Progress, Nature

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Peace, Home, Happiness

Animals, we have been told, are taught by their organs. Yes, I would add, and so are men, but men have this further advantage that they can also teach their organs in return.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Body

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Behavior, Manners

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Communication

Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. If I know what your business is, I know what can be made of you.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Since I have heard often enough that everyone in the end has his own religion, nothing seemed more natural to me than to fashion my own.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Religion

The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Media

The passions are like those demons with which Afrasahiab sailed down the Orus. Our only safety consists in keeping them asleep. If they wake, we are lost.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Passion

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Words

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Nature, Life

I know nothing more mocking than a devil that despairs.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Evil

A useless life is an early death.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: One liners, Dying, Purpose, Death

Nature reacts not only to physical disease, but also to moral weakness; when the danger increases, she gives us greater courage.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The man of understanding finds everything laughable.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Understanding

Method will teach you to win time.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Order

The best pleasures of this world are not quite true.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Pleasure

Only when we know little do we know anything; doubt grows with knowledge.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Doubt

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit – this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Earth, World

What we do not understand we do not possess.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Topics: Challenges

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