Skip to content

Where knowledge suffices, we have no need of belief; but where knowledge does not prove its virtue or appears insufficient, we should not dispute the rights of belief.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Another quote →

Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: letter to J. D. Falk (January 25, 1813), in Werke, Briefe und Gespräche (Zurich: Artemis-Ausgabe, 1949), Vol. 22, p. 680.
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.

The deed is everything, the glory nothing.

Faust, Part 2 (1832)

Nothing should be treasured more highly than the value of the day.

Maxims and Reflections (1833)

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.

Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786)

The society of women is the foundation of good manners.

Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809)

For the nature of women is closely allied to art.

A noble man is led far by woman's gentle words.

Iphigenia auf Tauris (1786)

The deed is everything, the glory naught.

All Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes →

Topics

Faith

More quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.

Maxims and Reflections (1833)

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

Elective Affinities (1809)

I had rather be Mercury, the smallest among seven [planets], revolving round the sun, than the first among five [moons] revolving round Saturn.

Of freedom and of life he only is deserving
Who every day must conquer them anew.

Faust, Part 2 (1832)

Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.

All Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes →

You may also like

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Peter Carr (1787)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Colin Wilson Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love."

Jonathan Edwards Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.