Jean Paul? Johann Paul Friedrich Richter? Charles T. Brooks? H. L. Mencken? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The experience of a birthday inspires philosophical reveries in some older people. Apparently, a literary figure once wrote:
Birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.
This statement has been credited to the German Romantic writer Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (also known as Jean Paul). I have not been able to find a citation. Would you please help?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The novel “Titan” was published between 1800 and 1803 by Johann Paul Friedrich Richter. One section contained a letter from the character Albano to the character Roquairol (also known as Karl). The letter used multiple metaphors to discuss aging. For example, feathers marked the passage of time. Also, all of humanity appeared on a long river together with Charon, the ferryman of the Greek underworld. Here is an English rendering of the pertinent passage followed by the original German text with a scan. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
– Karl, often on my birthday I counted the growing years, the feathers in the broad wing of time, and thought about the passing of youth; then I stretched out my hand to a friend who would stay with me in Charon’s boat, in which we are born, when the seasons of life pass before me on the bank with flowers and leaves and fruits, and when the human race rushes down the long river in a thousand cradles and coffins.
– Karl, oft zählt’ ich am Geburttage die wachsenden Jahre ab, die Federn im breiten Flügel der Zeit, und bedachte das Verrauschen der Jugend; da streckt’ ich weit die Hand nach einem Freunde aus, der bei mir im Charons Nachen, worin wir geboren werden, stehen bliebe, wenn vor mir die Jahrzeiten des Lebens am Ufer vorüberlaufen mit Blumen und Blättern und Früchten und wenn auf dem langen Strom das Menschengeschlecht in tausend Wiegen und Särgen hinunterschießet.
QI believes that the popular English saying under examination was derived from the text above. The English statement is more concise and simpler.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1862 an English translation by Charles T. Brooks of “Titan: A Romance” was published in Boston. The translator called the recipient of the letter “Charles” instead of “Karl”:2
“Charles, often have I reckoned up, on my birthday, the increasing years,—the feathers in the broad wing of time,—and thought upon the sounding flight of youth: then I stretched my hand far out after a friend, who should stick by me in the Charon’s skiff wherein we are born, when the seasons of life’s year glide by along the shore before me, with their flowers and leaves and fruits, and when, on the long stream, the human race shoots downward in its thousand cradles and coffins.
In 1868 the key passage in German together with Brooks’s English rendering appeared in “Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors” edited by Craufurd Tait Ramage.3
In 1884 the passage in English appeared in “Wit, Wisdom, and Philosophy of Jean Paul Richter” edited by Giles P. Hawley:4
Often have I reckoned up, on my birthday, the increasing years—the feathers in the broad wing of time—and thought upon the sounding flight of youth; then I stretched my hand far out after a friend, who should stick by me in the Charon’s skiff …
In 1907 “Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly” of New York printed the following:5
That great German prose poet, Jean Paul Richter, styles our years “feathers in the broad wing of time.” But the flight of time is not altogether to be regretted. Time does not fly so fast but that much vision, much thought, much activity, much achievement may be put into its hours.
In 1942 journalist and scholar H. L. Mencken published “A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources” which contained an entry with the simplified quotation attributed to Richter:6
Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.
JEAN PAUL RICHTER: Titan, XLVII, 1803
In 1944 the “Chicago Daily Tribune” of Illinois printed an instance of the saying:7
Every day in every way large numbers of people are having birthdays. Crowned heads, dictators, and Presidents with “mandates” are flattered with national celebrations, but the rest of us manage to get along with a cake, a candle, and brief, perfunctory salutes by the happy birthday song, or with nothing except the comforts or pangs of our own meditations. “Birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of Time,” wrote Jean Paul Richter, a German who may be quoted without political risks …
In 1962 “Lifetime Speaker’s Encyclopedia” edited by Jacob Morton Braude included this entry:8
Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.
—JEAN PAUL RICHTER: Titan, XLVII, 1803
In 1993 “The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations” included this entry:9
Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.
JEAN PAUL RICHTER (1763-1825), German novelist.
Titan, ch. 47 (1803).
In conclusion, Johann Paul Friedrich Richter deserves credit for the German passage he wrote in “Titan” in 1803. An English translation by Charles T. Brooks entered circulation by 1862. A simplified version attributed to Richter was published by H. L. Mencken in 1942. During subsequent decades the simplified instance appeared in other quotation books.
Image Notes: Picture of an owl in flight from Richard Lee at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Quinn Que whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1827, Jean Paul’s Sämmtliche Werke: (Jean Paul’s Complete Works), Author: Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, Part 22, Fünfte Lieferung (Fifth Delivery), Zweiter Band (Second Volume), Titan by Jean Paul, Chapter: Neunte Jobelperiode (Ninth Jubilee Period), Section: 47 Zykel (Cycle), Start Page 82, Quote Page ??, G. Reimer, Berlin, Germany. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1862, Titan: A Romance. From the German of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Translated by Charles T. Brooks, Volume 1 of 2, Chapter: Ninth Jubilee, Section 47: Cycle, Sub-Section: Albano’s Letter To Roquairol, Quote Page 279 and 280, Ticknor and Fields, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1868, Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors, Edited by Craufurd Tait Ramage, Person: Jean Paul F. Richter, Section: Our Birthdays Like Feathers in the Broad Wing of Time Citation: Titan, Cycle 47, Quote Page 275, Edward Howell, Liverpool, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1884, Wit, Wisdom, and Philosophy of Jean Paul Richter, Edited by Giles P. Hawley, Chapter 7: Happiness, Section 115: The Yearning of a Warm Heart for Friendship, Quote Page 98, Funk & Wagnalls, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1907 February 28, Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, Use Your Time, Quote Page 194, Judge Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1942, A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources, Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken), Section: Birthday, Quote Page 106, Alfred A. Knopf. New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1944 November 21, Chicago Daily Tribune, A Line O’ Type Or Two: Feathers On Time’s Wing, Quote Page 14, Column 3, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1962 Copyright, Lifetime Speaker’s Encyclopedia, Edited by Jacob Morton Braude, Topic: Birthday, Quote Number 607, Quote Page 74, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1993, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Edited by Robert Andrews, Topic: Birthdays, Quote Page 94, Column 1, Columbia University Press, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎