How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.
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Robert Hughes on Talent and Doubt
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.
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Sherlock on Modesty
"My dear Watson," said he, "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers."
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Hugh on Intellectual Aptitude and Temperance
Aptitude is a certain faculty naturally rooted in the mind and empowered from within. It arises from nature, is improved by use, is blunted by excessive work, and is sharpened by temperate practice. As someone has very nicely said: "Please! Spare yourself for my sake—there’s only drudgery in those papers! Go run in the open air!"
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“Ochre”
Original Poetry from Geoffrey Ayers
