Love this essay, now over 50 years old, from Joan Didion. Every paragraph has some gold in it, but this one is key: In brief, people with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character, a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues. The measure of its slipping prestige is that one tends to think of it only in connection with homely children and with United States senators who have been defeated, preferably in the primary, for re-election. Nonetheless, character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 18:32:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015