Johann Wolfgang von Goethe vs Voltaire
How do Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Voltaire compare? Here is a side-by-side look at their lives, achievements and historical impact.
| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Voltaire | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifespan | 1749 – 1832 | 1694 – 1778 |
| Born | Frankfurt am Main, Germany | Paris, France |
| Occupation | Writer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist | Writer, Philosopher |
| Known for | Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, German literature, Theory of colours | Candide, Defending free speech and tolerance, Enlightenment wit |
| Fields | — | Philosophy, History |
| Influence score | 92/100 | 90/100 |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, poet, and statesman, widely regarded as the greatest figure in German literature and one of the towering minds of European culture.
Full biography →Voltaire
Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher and wit, a tireless champion of reason, free speech and religious tolerance and one of the most influential figures of his age.
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92Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher whose radical critiques of morality, religion, and truth—including the proclamation that "God is dead" and the ideal of the Übermensch—made him one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the modern era.
Why A later German thinker who revered Goethe as the embodiment of a flourishing, life-affirming individual.
Ludwig van Beethoven
94Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, one of the greatest musicians in history, who bridged the Classical and Romantic eras and composed masterpieces even after going deaf.
Why A contemporary German-speaking genius who admired and set Goethe's work to music.
Immanuel Kant
94Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the Enlightenment, one of the most influential thinkers in history, who reconciled rationalism and empiricism and transformed ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.
Why The leading German philosopher of Goethe's era, whose ideas shaped the intellectual world he wrote in.
Victor Marie Hugo
89Victor Hugo was a French novelist, poet, and dramatist, the towering figure of French Romanticism, whose novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame are monuments of world literature.
Why A fellow giant of European Romantic literature working in another national tradition.
Isaac Newton
99Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician whose laws of motion and universal gravitation laid the foundation of classical mechanics and the Scientific Revolution.
Why Voltaire admired and helped popularize Newton's science for French readers.
Benjamin Franklin
90Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath — a founding father, scientist, inventor, writer and diplomat — whose work on electricity and statesmanship made him one of the most admired figures of the 18th century.
Why A fellow Enlightenment celebrity; the two famously met and embraced in Paris.