The Personal Heresy

I know that we hear much of this kind of courage in publisher's advertisements; there every scribbler is 'daring' when he defies gods whom he does not believe in, or conventions that have no authority in the only circles he frequents. But had not 'courage' of this sort better be left to blurb-writers? For, to tell the truth, literary composition is not an employment that makes very heavy demands on this arduous virtue. What meditation on human fate demands so much 'courage' as the act of stepping into a cold bath? I should be glad to hear of it, for I know no path to heroism which sounds so suited to my own capacities.

Quoted on September 30, 2011

The exaltation of poets into demigods is all part of the modern tendency to live vicariously, to watch semi-divine sportsmen giving exhibitions instead of playing yourself, to listen to professionals making music on the air instead of yourself acquiring a personal skill, to buy ready-cooked food in tins instead of using the domestic oven.

Quoted on September 30, 2011