It is a mistake to imagine that potentially great men are rare. It is the conditions that permit the promise of greatness to be fulfilled that are rare. What is so difficult to achieve is the cultural background that permits potential greatness to be converted into actual greatness. – Fred Hoyle, Of Man and Galaxies

The barrenest of all mortals is the sentimentalist. – Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter Scott, in London and Westminster Review, 12 November

From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair. РAndr̩ Gide, The Counterfeiters, 1925