Home Fires (2011), Reflection 1
Fiction
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
“Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness.”
Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
Context: Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. My great predecessor, William Faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about.
Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being.
This is not new. The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.
From books
Source: Jean Vanier, Community And Growth, 1979
In Great Contemporaries, "Alfonso XIII" (1937).
The 1930s
“The most attractive quality of all is dignity.”
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
“The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 49
“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.”
“The strong need the weak in order to become more human, more compassionate.”
Jean Vanier: Philosopher.. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jean-vanier-philosopher-who-dislikes-the-religion-of-success-wins-12m-templeton-prize-for-promoting-spiritual-awareness-10101621.html The Independent, 11 March 2015
From interviews and talks
