Are we to decline upon a genial determinism, and to sweep away all belief in moral responsibility?

There is no room here for remarks on free will and determinism; suffice it to say that Goethe does not preach any doctrine of mechanical determinism in human relations.

No resolute determinism can ever avail us against the stern verdict of that inner tribunal of the soul, which decides, too, by some instinct that we cannot divine, to sting and torture us with the memory of deeds, the momentousness and importance of which we should utterly fail to explain to others.

Scientific determinism is simply the primal twilight of all mankind; and some men seem to be returning to it.

Despite preliminary obstacles this preacher of the most stern and unflinching determinism produced a quite extraordinary effect at last.