Goethe wisdom

I have posted several times on the appropriation of Goethe's words in advertising, self-help manuals, political slogans, and the like. I wonder if there is any living personality whom we would invoke today to give substance to whatever agenda is being promoted. In a recent post, I quoted from a New York Times piece by Martin Walser, in which Walser vented about this mobilization of Goethe's words, generally without context. There are dozens of quotes on Google Images, including the one at the top of this post.

Usually I run these quotes through Google Translate to see if they sound like Goethe. In a post entitled "Goethe Wisdom," I mentioned one that I felt sounded too corny to come from Goethe. Here it is: "Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words. Here is how Google Translate rendered it: "Jeden Tag sollten wir mindestens ein kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein exquisites Bild sehen und, wenn möglich, ein paar vernünftige Worte sprechen."

This summer I have been working my way through Goethe's Wilhelm Meister novels. I began with the Theatralische Sendung and am now in the middle of Book 5 of the Lehrjarhre. And what did I come across this morning but the following:

"Man sollte," sagte er, "alle Tage wenigstens in kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein treffliches Gemälde sehen und, wenn es möglich zu machen wäre, einige vernünftige Worte sprechen."

These are the veritable written words of Goethe, much better than Google's German translation of the English, but they were not spoken by Goethe himself. The speaker is the theater director Serlo, with whom Wilhelm Meister is having a discussion about theatrical matters. The narrator's attitude toward Serlo is ambivalent, although the value of what he recommends here cannot be denied. In a certain respect, he voices opinions of the theater public that one imagines Goethe was himself in agreement with.

I do not know if the quote in the image above is by Goethe, but I love the sound of it. Maybe I will come across it one of these days in my reading of Goethe. If anyone knows, however, please write.