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

These lines come from the closing scene of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s dramatic poem “Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil” (Faust, Part Two), published in 1832 shortly after Goethe’s death. In the final act, Faust imagines a future community wresting habitable land from the sea through continual labor and collective effort. The couplet appears as part of Faust’s culminating reflection on what makes life and liberty meaningful: not inherited privilege or static possession, but ongoing striving. The sentiment fits Goethe’s late-life preoccupation with “Tätigkeit” (active doing) and the idea that human fulfillment lies in perpetual effort rather than final rest.

The couplet argues that freedom and life are not permanent endowments but achievements that must be renewed through daily struggle. “Deserving” here is ethical as well as existential: one earns the right to call oneself free and fully alive by continually resisting inertia, complacency, and forces that would diminish autonomy. In Goethe’s broader Faustian framework, the line elevates striving over possession—meaning is created through repeated acts of self-overcoming and responsible engagement with the world. The aphoristic force of the verse has helped it travel beyond its dramatic context into political and personal registers, where it is often read as a call to vigilance and continual self-renewal.

1) “He only earns his freedom and existence / Who daily conquers them anew.”
2) “Only he deserves freedom and life / Who must conquer them each day anew.”
3) “He alone deserves liberty and life / Who wins them every day anew.”