Faust and Two Favorite Quotations

I never would have written an essay on my two favorite quotations if I had not been assigned a reflection paper on "Faust," long ago when I was taking graduate courses at the university in the beautiful city of Klagenfurt, Austria. To this day, I am grateful for the assignment. It compelled me not only to think more critically about "Faust," which I had read for at least the fourth or fifth time by then, but it also gave me an occasion to think about just why two quotations I had always liked were indeed my favorite ones.

Translated from the German, here is the essay I wrote.

I was a young college student of twenty the first time I read "Faust." Goethe's masterpiece impressed me deeply, and I have always especially remembered one line, "Linger, thou art so beautiful!" ("Verweile doch! Du bist so schön!") For those of you, who have not had the pleasure of reading "Faust," the quotation comes at a time when Faust has finally found such happiness in his life that he is willing to make good on the wager he had made earlier with the Devil, to give up his very soul in exchange for a moment so fulfilling that he can exclaim," Linger! Thou art so beautiful!"

That Goethe associated such a life affirming moment with death disturbed me at the time. Even then in my young life I had known moments so rich in beauty and wonder that I could say, "Linger! Thou art so beautiful!" These moments, however, were always reasons to continue living! To want to die at such a moment was simply impossible for me as a twenty year old to comprehend.

After a life full of achievement, Faust feels a deep existential emptiness. This emptiness estranges him from everything "... that is accessible to all mankind." Such an alienation often leads people to a spiritual journey, a search for the divine. That a meeting with Godlessness in the person of Mephistopheles somehow might fulfill Faust's spiritual emptiness both unsettled and intrigued me at the same time. It never would have occurred to me that the "spirit, which always denies" could create such a moment for anyone. It seemed a paradox, and it defied all my presuppositions.

For Faust, the moment to which he could say, "Linger! Thou art so beautiful!" filled the emptiness he had so long felt inside so completely with joy and purpose that he could happily meet his fate, perish and lose his very soul to Mephistopheles. Such a moment to me seemed like an affirmation of all that is holy and beautiful in life. Perhaps that came from the fact that I was not nearly as accomplished as Faust. Perhaps it came from the fact that I was not yet so world weary.

This "Linger! Thou art so beautiful!" is one of my two favorite quotations. The other comes from Ovid's "The Aeneid," and I have always found it just as beautiful in English as it is in Latin. "Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuabit." ("Someday it will be pleasing to remember these things.") I have often thought about both quotations and believe that they actually go hand-in-hand. First comes the overwhelming moment, which should linger because it is so beautiful, and then comes the memory, which will be so pleasing to reflect on in the far off future. There is no memory without the moment!

I am no longer a 20 year old college student. I will turn 60 on March 3, 2011. On July 1, 2011, I will be officially retired and ready to begin whatever new adventures the last third of my life will bring my way. I expect many more moments that I will beg to linger because of the great joy they bring. Eventually, of course, they will fade into many more memories that it will be pleasing to reflect on in my old age.

Even now, though, I can imagine the day when I will be able to say to my entire life, "Enough! You were so beautiful!" When that time comes, with a little bit of luck, in the distant future, I sense that I will be able to embrace death with complete serenity. My only hope is that Gretchen will be there with her beautiful bouquet of celestial flower petals to keep away the devil's demons so eager to get their grubby little hands on my soul!


Here I am at about the age I was the first time I read "Faust" at Wake Forest.