"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly—that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course they are charitable. They feed the hungry, they clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it."

• nathan
• January 12, 2010
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Page 20
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