...All endeavours which are directed to a purely worldly end...contain within themselves the germs of their own corruption.
Interpretation
The pursuit of material goals often leads to inevitable corruption or failure.
This quote by T. H. White suggests that when efforts are solely focused on worldly or materialistic objectives, they are prone to moral decline and negative consequences. It highlights the idea that a lack of higher purpose in endeavors can result in their eventual downfall, emphasizing the importance of guiding principles and integrity in all pursuits.
In practice
In a discussion about ethical business practices, one could reference this quote to emphasize the importance of morality over profit.
Kay was older and bigger than the Wart, so that he was bound to win in the end, but he was more nervous and imaginative. He could imagine the effect of each blow that was aimed at him, and this weakened his defense. Wart was only an infuriated hurricane.
There is a thing called knowledge of the world, which people do not have until they are middle-aged. It is something which cannot be taught to younger people, because it is not logical and does not obey laws which are constant. It has no rules. Only, in the long years which bring women to the middle of life, a sense of balance develops...when she is beginning to hate her used body, she suddenly finds that she can do it. She can go on living.
The destiny of man is to unite, not to divide.
He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him, but the ones who went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned. He had the glee of the porpoise then, pouring and leaping through strange seas.
There is one fairly good reason for fighting - and that is, if the other man starts it. You see, wars are a great wickedness, perhaps the greatest wickedness of a wicked species. They are so wicked that they must not be allowed. When you can be perfectly certain that the other man started them, then is the time when you might have a sort of duty to stop them.
Life is too bitter already, without territories and wars and noble feuds
One of the things I do take some pride in is that if you had never read an article about my life, if you knew nothing about me, except that my books were being set in front of you to read, and if you were to read those books in sequence, I don't think you would say to yourself, 'Oh my God, something terrible happened to this writer in 1989.'
Which brings me to my conclusion upon Free Will and Predestination, namely - let the reader mark it - that they are identical.
We all have thoughts and feelings that we believe are fundamental to our lives but that are better left unspoken.
Who knew that better than I, who had presided over the death of my own body, seeing all I called human wither and die only to form an unbreakable chain which held me fast to this world yet made me forever its exile, a specter with a beating heart?
It's a curse - this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy.
It was obvious that he was a man who marched through life to the rhythms of some drum I would never hear.
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