“By calling him humourless I mean to impugn his seriousness, categorically: such a man must rig up his probity ex nihilo.”
Part I: Failures of Tolerance
Experience (2000)
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Martin Amis 136
Welsh novelist 1949Related quotes
The same holds for Homeric Epic that has been subjected to the same kinds of modern literary criticism.
Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

Source: (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 81.

“Jefferson was not ashamed to call the black man his brother and to address him as a gentleman.”
1870s, Self-Made Men (1872)
The Great Queen is Amused.
High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories (1982)

Man's Search for Meaning (1946; 1959; 1984)
Context: The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.