The real wisdom here isn't about priorities themselves—plenty of people know that family matters more than email—but about *structural vulnerability*, the way we let trivial urgencies colonize our attention until the important becomes genuinely neglected. Goethe is warning against the tyranny of the immediate: a parent who misses their child's childhood because they were perpetually "too busy," or someone who abandons a meaningful project for the thousandth small interruption. What makes this different from mere time-management advice is the word "mercy"—he's describing a condition of dependence, where the things we cherish are held hostage by the things we merely react to. When you check your phone compulsively during conversations with people you love, you've placed the most meaningful relationship under the dominion of the least meaningful notification.