“You see, Monsieur, it's worth everything, isn't it, to keep one's intellectual liberty, not to enslave one's
powers of appreciation, one's critical independence? It was because of that that I abandoned journalism, and
took to so much duller work: tutoring and private secretaryship. There is a good deal of drudgery, of course;
but one preserves one's moral freedom, what we call in French one's quant a soi. And when one hears good
talk one can join in it without compromising any opinions but one's own; or one can listen, and answer it
inwardly. Ah, good conversation--there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth
breathing. And so I have never regretted giving up either diplomacy or journalism--two different forms of the
same self-abdication." He fixed his vivid eyes on Archer as he lit another cigarette. "Voyez-vous, Monsieur,
to be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it? But, after all, one must earn
enough to pay for the garret; and I confess that to grow old as a private tutor--or a `private' anything--is almost
as chilling to the imagination as a second secretaryship at Bucharest. Sometimes I feel I must make a plunge:
an immense plunge. Do you suppose, for instance, there would be any opening for me in America-- in New
York?”
―
Edith Wharton,
The Age of Innocence
