We couldn't have the Good Stuff without the Annoying Stuff!
The sole condition of our having anything, no matter what, is that we should have so much of it, that we are fortunate if we do not grow sick of the sight and sound of it altogether. Everything is smothered in the litter that is fated to accompany it. Without too much you cannot have enough, of anything. Lots of inferior books…of tenth-rate men and women, as a condition of the few precious specimens…the gold-dust comes to birth with the quartz-sand all around it.
--A PLURALISTIC UNIVERSE, ch. 8, William James
Courtesy Richard Lawrence Cohen
Thanks for the link!
Posted by: Richard Lawrence Cohen | November 15, 2005 at 09:20 AM
Thanks for putting it up, Richard. Every time I read William James, I think "Why don't I read more William James?!" So logical and scientific and imaginative all at the same time....
Posted by: dilys | November 15, 2005 at 01:42 PM