People don’t realize how much time and effort is required to learn to read. I have been at it for eighty years, and I haven’t reached my goal.

The remark is presented as something Goethe said in conversation late in life, recorded by Johann Peter Eckermann in an entry dated January 25, 1830. Goethe is depicted as pushing back against readers who assume they can immediately tackle difficult philosophical and scientific works without preparation, emphasizing that truly learning to read well is a long, demanding process.

The quote treats reading as a lifelong discipline rather than a basic skill mastered in childhood. It suggests that deep, competent reading—especially of complex material—requires sustained study, background knowledge, and humility, and that even an accomplished thinker can view himself as still learning.

“The good people don’t know how much time and effort it cost to learn to read. It took me eighty years to do it and I still can’t say that I’ve reached my goal.”

“The dear good people don’t know what time and toil it has taken one to learn to read. I have been at it for 80 years and cannot say even now that I have attained the goal.”

“The good world does not know what it costs in time and in pains to learn to read and profit by one’s reading; I have put into it eighty years.”