It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage. I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright.
[Annie Dillard]

“I do not pay Compliments, because I do not desire them. For this Reason, I am very well pleas’d you speak so coldly of my Petition. I had, however, given Orders to have it printed, which perhaps may be executed: Tho’ I believe I had better have left it alone. Not because it will give Offence, but because it will not give Entertainment: Not because it may be call’d profane; but because it may deservedly be call’d dull.”

[from “A Letter Concerning the Dialogues on Natural Religion”]