Saturday, October 13, 2007

I'm seized by laughter every time I remember how I used to think--and you apparently still think this--that one might set up a happy, honest little world and lead a peaceful, quiet, faultless life, beyond reproach, serenely doing only what is right. What nonsense! It can't be done, old thing! Any more thant one can keep fit without exercise, just by holding still. To live an honest life you must struggle, stray, do battle, make mistakes, begin, give up, start over, quit again, fight and lose without end. Peace is spiritual degradation.

3 comments:

Ahab Cloud said...

Tolstoy qtd. in Zagajewski's _Another Beauty_

Ahab Cloud said...

also found in Cassavetes'

1. biography
2. filmography

Ahab Cloud said...

and Williams, especially as filtered through Coles (forgive my trail of breadcrumbs, this is an essay I've been writing for years...)