Andy Chase

Moments after posting my previous ramble on long-term musical goals, I read this wonderful, hair-raisingly à propos quote on William King's weblog:

"Find your proper place by merit, not by presumption. The true road to respect is through merit, and if industry accompanies merit the path becomes shorter. Integrity alone is not sufficient, push and insistence is degrading, for things that arrive by that means are so sullied that the discredit destroys reputation. The true way is the middle way, halfway between deserving a place and pushing oneself into it."

from 'The Art of Worldly Wisdom' by Balthazar Gracian, 17th century Spanish Jesuit.