Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.

We spend our lives talking about this mystery. Our life.

Every true man, sir, who is a little above the level of the beasts and plants does not live for the sake of living, without knowing how to live; but he lives so as to give a meaning and a value of his own to life.

We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.

I was looking for what the meaning of life was.

Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.

In the early ages, I believe not much thought was given to what man is and what his real functions should be, and what is the real purpose of his life.

Turning 30 changed me in ways I didn't expect. For the very first time, I felt like my life is valuable. Not my life because I'm putting something good into the world or I'm well-respected in my field, but my life as a human being on this planet for a limited amount of time.

Man positively needs general ideas and convictions that will give a meaning to his life and enable him to find a place for himself in the universe.

Death is not the greatest tragedy in life. The greatest tragedy is what dies inside us while we live. We need not fear death. We need fear only that we may exist without having sensed something of the possibilities that lie within human existence.

Did you know that every human being is created with a purpose and that they have a responsibility to not only discover their purpose but also to fulfill it?

The purpose that you wish to find in life, like a cure you seek, is not going to fall from the sky. ...I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it's not just divinely assigned.

The answer to human life is not to be found within the limits of human life.

You have to work out where your place is. And who you are. But we're all spirit. That's all we are, we're just walking dressed up in a suit of skin, and we're going to leave that behind.

When I got untethered from the comfort of religion, it wasn't a loss of faith for me, it was a discovery of self. I had faith that I'm capable enough to handle any situation. There's peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and [that] I'm responsible.

We never know we are beings till we love. And then it is we know the powers and potentialities of human existence.

Whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential.

By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.

I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves.

Man must understand his universe in order to understand his destiny.

If we were to live here always, with no other care than how to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, life would be a very sorry business. It is immeasurably heightened by the solemnity of death.

What we are really living for is the experience of life, both the pain and the pleasure.

Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on this refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods.

There's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be.

We are engaged here in the most important pusuit in history. The search for meaning. What is What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person?How did we come to be, and wha will become of us when we are no longer? In short: What are the rules this game, and how might we best play it?