The broad Enlightenment movement was characterized by the defense of the emancipatory power of science and reason. Goethe and Rousseau positioned themselves within this movement in different ways in the context of the European eighteenth century. Considering the persistence of resonances of this movement in the contemporary, especially in the educational practices, this article aims to point out the influence of Goethe and Rousseau on the theoretical construct of Bildung. Thus, it was necessary to adopt an approach permeated by history and literature encompassing the autobiographical writings of both, to elucidate some possible approximations between them. So, we take as a basis fragments taken from the following Goethe works: The Years of ...