Goethe on Imagination...  

Worse than no imagination? O...
Worse than no imagination? Or an underdeveloped imagination? An imagination stiffled and shackled? Imagination has no bounds...it always transforms itself. One can go from good to bad and vice versa in mere strokes.
I'm going to research this Mr Wolfgang Von Goethe tomorrow. I question his perspective.

"Who is rich and who is poor I cannot say."
-Morrissey

Lunchbox...
Not sure of your exact intent in linking this quote to Goethe's, but, regardless, lyrics like this one from Morrissey, or similar quotes and epigrams, have always struck me as disingenuous. Morrissey, with substantial record and gate revenues, may not be able to distinguish who is poor and who is rich, but this incapacity to distinguish has not seemed to impede his ability to know to pursue, and acquire, wealth. For all of rock's good qualities, rock and roll has long wreaked of this sort of hypocrisy about riches. Acutely ambitious musicians are touring and promoting like mad (harder than the greediest business men I have known) and doing everything they possibly can to get rich and famous by singing songs to kids recommending the kids do everything but focus on getting rich themselves. A few rock performers have been authentic about what money grubbers they truly were, but not many. About the only persons who can indulge in these sorts of sentiments expressed by this quote are persons who have never been poor, or who have forgotten the sting of it, because of the money they have made.

Depends. How do you define "r...
Depends. How do you define "rich" or "poor?" It might have been said under a different context, but I have to agree, rock and roll have always been hypocritical about money.
John Lennon loved to think of himself as the blue collar rock and roll hero. It's bullshit really. That white grand he wrote "Imagine" on is probably worth more than my (new) car.

Does rich and poor relate to...
Does rich and poor relate to money alone?
Having spent much of my social life around music and muscians, I can say most never see riches you are talking about DC. I would estimate that the average income is a middle class paycheck...if they're fortunate. Another important fact, most put music first...not paychecks. Often times richness is an illusion. An excellent example of this...hip hop videos on MTV. The cars, the bling, the homes, stacks of cash, the ladies...all rented.

And
Right or wrong, I think I must agree with Mr. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. But, I'll call it an opinion rather than a fact. I know far too many imaginative people that imagine and create with no regards to constraint or taste. It certainly is dreadful (to me).

Let's put Morrissey's quote...
Let's put Morrissey's quote in context:
You've got everything now (lyrics)
As merry as the days were long
I was right and you were wrong
Back at the old grey school
I would win and you would lose
But you've got everything now
You've got everything now
And what a terrible mess I've made of my life
Oh, what a mess I've made of my life
No, I've never had a job
Because I've never wanted one
I've seen you smile
But I've never really heard you laugh
So who is rich and who is poor ?
I cannot say ... oh
You are your mother's only son
And you're a desperate one
Oh ...
But I don't want a lover
I just want to be seen ... oh ... in the back of your car
A friendship sadly lost ?
Well this is true ... and yet, it's false
Oh ...
But did I ever tell you, by the way ?
I never did like your face
But you've got everything now
You've got everything now
And what a terrible mess I've made of my life
Oh, what a mess I've made of my life
No, I've never had a job
Because I'm too shy
I've seen you smile
But I've never really heard you laugh
So who is rich and who is poor ?
I cannot say ... oh
Oh ...
You are your mother's only son
And you're a desperate one
Oh ...
But I don't want a lover
I just want to be tied ... oh ... to the back of your car
To the back of your car
To the back of your car
To the back of your car
To the back of your car
To the back of your car
Oh ...

As someone who began to...
As someone who began to become aware of music as something more than background noise some time in the late 60s, nothing can make me feel older than when The Who announce their next reunion tour.
Another couple of favorite Goethe quotes:
* A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.
* Everything in the world may be endured except continued prosperity.
And one of the more memorable quotes I recall with regard to imagination came from a Barbara Walters interview with Robert Mitchum.
BW: You've been married 42 years. What makes your marriage work?
RM: Lack of imagination, I suppose.

I wasn't touting Morrissey's...
I wasn't touting Morrissey's quote as much as trying to illustrate the point that these broad, sweeping statements offer little to me aside from rhetorical qualities. These attempts at being prolific whilst being concise many times render a thinker no more poignant than a drunken rock-n-rolla if you ask me. Are we honestly going to say Goethe's statement is more sound than Morrissey's? I don't think we can. Each do little more than spur rhetorical thought. To take either literally would deem them ridiculous. Yet, to read into the two I would have to say that Morrissey's line is quite deeper. And that might possibly have something to do with the scope of Goethe's statement. I don't know.

Seriously?
Goethe - poet, scientist, dramatist, writer, philosopher, traveler and overall renaissance man ...
versus
Morrissey - the kind of whiny, self involved, emo DB who, if he were a 14 year old girl instead of a millionaire musician, would have offed himself years ago instead of singing about it. (not advocating - just saying).

Lucifer, Lucifer, Lucifer...
You're approaching it from the same angle dc did. It's not about the people. Just the two lines. Look at and analyze the words only. Goethe states "imagination without taste"... What about imagination without conscience or pity? There have been a number of sick men whose imaginations led to the demise of many. I think I'd much rather be a victim of bad taste than malice.

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let taste temper much...but imagination...

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"Momma's got a squeezebox
Daddy never sleeps at night"