Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt in 1749.
He was a German poet, playwright and philosopher known for his literary prowess and impact on Western thought.
Tutored extensively as a child, Goethe developed a love for poetry and literature, notably influenced by Homer, Ovid and Shakespeare.
His first collection of poems, “Annette,” was published anonymously in 1770. Goethe’s fame skyrocketed after the publication of his novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” in 1774 earning him recognition from Napoleon Bonaparte and sparking the “Werther Fever” phenomenon.
Collaborating with poet Friedrich Schiller, Goethe played a key role in transforming the Weimar Theatre into a national treasure.
Post Schiller’s death, Goethe created his most famous work, “Faust.” Despite his literary achievements, Goethe considered his work in philosophy and science his true legacy.
Related: Howard Ashman Quotes from the Famous American Playwright and Mercy Otis Warren Quotes from Famous Poet and Playwright
His writings greatly influenced Western literature and intellectuals such as Randall Jarrell and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Goethe died in 1832, leaving an enduring literary legacy.
I have made a great collection of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes.
Best Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Few people have the imagination for reality. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Doubt can only be removed by action. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
One always has time enough, if one will apply it well. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
There is strong shadow where there is much light. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one’s self on lies and fables. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Every second is of infinite value. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Everything is hard before it is easy. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Famous Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
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.
He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Top Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Live dangerously and you live right. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Do not hurry; do not rest. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
A person hears only what they understand. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Money lost, something lost. Honor lost, much lost. Courage lost, everything lost-better you were never born. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
What is my life if I am no longer useful to others. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Enjoy what you can, endure what you must. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Popular Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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.
The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The best slave is the one who thinks he is free. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Just trust yourself and you’ll learn the art of living. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Love does not dominate; it cultivates. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
All our knowledge is symbolic. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
He who moves not forward, goes backward. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
If I love you, what business is it of yours? ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
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.
Wisdom is found only in truth. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Powerful Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Instruction does much, but encouragement everything. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
If you want to make life easy, make it hard. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Ultimate Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and the determination to attain it. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Precaution is better than cure. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
To quit smoking, you must first want to quit, but then you must also do the quitting. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Leap and the net will appear. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Inspiring Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed! ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
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.
Life is too short to drink bad wine. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Wise Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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.
It is delivery that makes the orators success. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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.
Willing is not enough, we must do. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
So these were the 113 top Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Marcus Garvey quotes and Joan Rivers quotes.
