Originally Posted By: orangedog
"I am much better employed from every point of view, when I live solely for my own satisfaction, than when I begin to worry about the world. (The world frightens me), and a frightened man is no good for anything."

– George Gissing


I get it, and I like it...except I just don't understand the highlighted part. Why does the world frighten him? I understand and agree with everything else in the quote.


"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." - William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830's.