Goethe isn't simply recommending self-improvement through culture—he's describing a minimum daily requirement for remaining human, the way we need food and sleep. Notice he doesn't say "try to appreciate" or "seek out if you find time"; he says *should hear*, *should read*, with the certainty of someone who knows what happens to a person deprived of beauty. That last phrase about "sensible words" is the sleeper: he's placing conversation on equal footing with art itself, suggesting that meaning-making happens as much in a friend's remark overheard at breakfast as in a museum. A parent who hums while making dinner, reads a paragraph aloud to a tired partner, and points out how light falls across the kitchen floor is following Goethe more faithfully than someone who attends a concert while checking their phone.