he who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth?

Question

when goethe said "he who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth" what do you think goethe means..

Answer 1

Goethe was one of the most learned individuals who ever lived.He knew Greek and Latin, studied art, conducted scientific experiments, and so on. Knowing and understanding what has transpired during the last three thousand years gives one a sense of perspective, and one is able to draw on recorded experience. His major creation Faust ranges over time, and has a relationship with Helen of Troy. A person who knows only the present or a very limited portion of the past has little in reserve and is like someone who depends exclusively on the day's pay, which is gone as soon as the day is done. Goethe is addressing not material but cultural and spiritual poverty, which the knowledge of the past enables us to overcome. A person who lives from hand to mouth has little time for the heart, the mind, and the soul, questions which have been explored during the last 3000 years.

Answer 2

Goethe uses a metaphor here, meaning "One who has learned nothing from three thousand years of history, is intellectually bankrupt."

Answer 3

That's a tough one, Goethe was a deep thinker but its not really always easy to understand the philosophies of deep thinkers! I started to read "the sorrows of young werther" and the prose is really beautiful! But wow this one is a tough one. . .
I looked it up on Google and got something about a book that begins with this exact quotation. And the book has to do with philosophical ideas such as: where do we come from? etc.
Hope this helps?