Called or uncalled, God will be present.

Jung himself identifies the motto in his letter to Eugene Rolfe, 19 November 1960, as an older Delphic oracle found in Erasmus’s Adagia; the letter’s note identifies the collection as classical sayings. Wikiquote likewise places the motto in its Misattributed section and explains Jung’s adoption of it. The realAuthor field therefore points to Anonymous as a traditional saying, not to Erasmus as its inventor. The exact item in Erasmus and an ancient Greek witness were not independently examined here, so no precise ancient date, individual composer, or earliest publication is claimed. The misattribution verdict concerns original authorship, not whether Jung used the words. The dated Jung witness independently examined is his letter of 19 November 1960 as printed in the 1976 edition. The date of the original inscription, the first modern English translation and the earliest attribution of original authorship to Jung were not established.

1. 19 November 1960CreditedIn his letter to Eugene Rolfe, Jung quotes the Latin inscription he has adopted above his door and identifies it as an older oracle found in Erasmus, not as his own composition. This is a dated letter witness, not a claim to have established the first inscription or earliest ancient wording.C. G. Jung, letter to Eugene Rolfe, 19 November 1960, in Letters, vol. 2: 1951–1961 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976), pp. 610–611, pp. 610–611. Checked in the text of a page scan, not the image. Source

Jung is responding to Rolfe’s book about approaching Christianity as an agnostic. He insists that a discussion of divine love also confront fear and evil, then explains the older Latin oracle he had placed above his door. He says the inscription reminds him and his patients of the fear of God as a beginning of wisdom.

Divine presence does not depend on whether someone invites or acknowledges it. In Jung’s explanation this is an unsettling question about the form and purpose of that presence, not simply an assurance of comfort.

It is genuinely a motto Jung adopted and quoted, but not a sentence he originated. Calling it Jung’s inscription is accurate; calling him its author is not. It is also easy to turn the motto into a comforting slogan while dropping his accompanying emphasis on fear and uncertainty.

Credit Jung with adopting the motto, not composing it. Its older provenance is explicitly acknowledged in his own letter; the individual ancient author is not identified.

God, Faith, Religion

• I don’t need to believe, I know.
• Of things some are in our power, and others are not. Epictetus
• We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead. Bernard Baruch
• More law, less justice. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. (paraphrase) Marcus Aurelius

• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Jung#Misattributed
• archive.org/details/2-jung-letters-of-cg-jung-vol-2-1951-1961/page/n670/mode/1up
• archive.org/details/2-jung-letters-of-cg-jung-vol-2-1951-1961/page/n671/mode/1up

“Called or uncalled, God will be present.” Attributed to Carl Gustav Jung. No. anonymous wrote it, not Jung. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/called-or-uncalled-god-will-be-present/ (checked 22 October 2026).

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