Quote of the Day (Thomas Hardy, on ‘A Well-Proportioned Mind’)

“A well-proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias; one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, that it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happiness and mediocrity.”—English novelist-poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), The Return of the Native (1878)