The best and the worst according to WB Yeats
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” - W.B. Yeats
To many people I know I think that lacking conviction would be seen as a great loss, and having passionate intensity as a great virtue.
But I found this quote in Phillip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace. I read about two chapters standing at the bookstall at church this week, realising why it is so well recomended. It has an idea of Christianity which sounds a lot more like the Jesus the gospels talk about than much of Christian stuff. I think it was about God being good, and being nice to people who don’t expect it. I liked it.
And I liked this quote above. Because it made me feel like I could sit on the ‘best’ side of the fence and be approved of. Because almost all the times when someone is without reserve in their convictions, be they Christian or otherwise, it doesn’t seem great. And I’m pretty wishy-washy.
Enter Smugness stage-left, who sits down on the nice comfy armchair of Righteousness and starts flicking through the Reasons Why Most Other People Are Probably A Bit Less Holy Than Me.
Ooops.
