Conviction is possible only in a world more primitive than ours can be perceived to be. A man can achieve a simply gnomic conviction only by ignoring the radical describers of his environment, or by hating them, as convinced men have hated, say, Darwin and Freud, as agents of some devil.
John CiardiTell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.
John Ciardi