Following the publication of numerous philological writings, in 1940 and 1944 his main works appeared: Vom Mythos zum Logos, die Selbstentfaltung des griechischen Denkens von Homer bis auf die Sophistik und Sokrates (From Mythos to Logos: The Self-development of Greek Thought from Homer to the Sophistics and Socrates) and Griechische Geistesgeschichte von Homer bis Lukian in ihrer Entfaltung vom mythischen zum rationalen Denken dargestellt (History of the Greek Spirit from Homer to Lucian, Presented in its Development from Mythical to Rational Thought).
In 1947, the University of Heidelberg awarded him the Kuno Fischer Prize for Vom Mythos zum Logos.
The length of Nestle's work is estimated, in the bibliography published by his son in 1965 on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, to be 34 books, 212 articles and tracts for magazines and newspapers as well as 628 reviews.
His main works, which appeared late in 1940 and 1944, are the aforementioned Vom Mythos zum Logos, die Selbstentfaltung des griechischen Denkens von Homer bis auf die Sophistik und Sokrates and Griechische Geistesgeschichte von Homer bis Lukian in ihrer Entfaltung vom mythischen zum rationalen Denken dargestellt, are the result of his Greek studies conducted over several decades.
The theologian Josef Hasenfuß summarized the basic thesis of this book as follows: “Today people could no longer be bound to the Christian creed; but they needed the ethics of Jesus to avoid the threat of self-destruction.