Viewing Single Post From: R-E-S-P-E-C-T Revisited

Viewing Single Post From: R-E-S-P-E-C-T Revisited
Duke parent 2004	Aug 15 2008, 08:17 PM
Posts: 410 Group: Global Moderators Member #366 Joined: Jun 6, 2008	joan foster Aug 15 2008, 12:31 PM "Life is a battle. On this point optimists and pessimists agree. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in very great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy. . . . In this there is mingled pain and delight, but over the mysterious mixture there hovers a visible rule, that bids us learn to will and seek to understand." Why is goodness weak? The fact that we equate goodness with patience and a certain genteel passiveness is part of the problem. Goodness should be fierce. Goodness is “very apt to be weak” because human beings are very apt to be weak. Henry James’s sage words appeared in 1874 (in an essay about Turgenev). I’m confident they’ll still ring true in 2074 . . . and long thereafter.


R-E-S-P-E-C-T Revisited · DUKE LACROSSE - Liestoppers