My friend was perfectly right, though it was not until long, long afterwards that experience of life taught me the evil that comes of thinking—still worse, of saying—much that seems very fine; taught me that there are certain thoughts which should always be kept to oneself, since brave words seldom go with brave deeds. I learnt then that the mere fact of giving utterance to a good intention often makes it difficult, nay, impossible, to carry that good intention into effect. Yet how is one to refrain from giving utterance to the brave, self-sufficient impulses of youth? Only long afterwards does one remember and regret them, even as one incontinently plucks a flower before its blooming, and subsequently finds it lying crushed and withered on the ground.
Leo Tolstoy – Youth (1857)
An old problem we've managed to make worse. It takes time for people to learn that brave words seldom go with brave deeds. We gradually grow into the adult world of trade-off and compromise to learn that carrying out those brave deeds may be too difficult, impossible or best forgotten altogether.
Yet the problem seems to have been exacerbated by modern levels of prosperity where practical, pragmatic insight is much less valuable than it once was. We also have to contend with the expansion of university education way beyond achievable academic excellence. The curse of the well qualified midwit is not a trivial curse.
Hence the perennial problem with student activists and retarded maturity which sometimes never does mature because careers may now be built on the evil that comes of thinking—still worse, of saying—much that seems very fine. Evil careers perhaps, but careers all the same.
