"You see, Monsieur. It's worth everything, isn't it, to keep one's intellectual liberty, not to enslave one's powers of appreciation, one's critical independence? It was because of that that I abandoned journalism, and took to so much duller work: tutoring and private secretaryship. There is a good deal of drudgery, of course; but one preserves one's moral freedom, what we call in French one's quant a soi. And when one hears good talk one can join in it without compromising any opinions but one's own; or one can listen, and answer it inwardly. Ah, good conversation -- there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing."-- The French tutor, in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence --
Have a great Thursday!
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I often envision William Wallace/Mel Gibson clutching a handkerchief with embroidered thistle, having his guts torn out and crying F R E E D O M!!!!!! It's a "must."
ReplyDeleteHuzzah!
Love this quote! It almost makes me want to overcome my Edith Wharton block and read something by her ;)
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