# Quote — Norman Mailer, Barbary Shore

> The essence of spirit, he thought to himself, was to choose the thing which did not better one's position but made it more perilous. That was why the world he knew was poor, for it insisted morality and caution were identical.

- Author: [Norman Mailer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer.md)
- Book: [Barbary Shore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer#Barbary_Shore_(1951)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore/the-essence-of-spirit

## More from this book

> Somerset Maugham … wrote somewhere that "Nobody is any better than he ought to be." … I carried it along with me as a working philosophy, but I suppose that finally I would have to take exception to the thought … or else the universe is just an elaborate clock.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore/somerset-maugham-wrote.md)

> Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore/revolutions-are-the.md)

> The storm approaches its thunderhead, and it is apparent that the boat drifts ever closer to shore. So the blind will lead the blind, and the deaf shout warnings to one another until their voices are lost.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/barbary-shore/the-storm-approaches.md)