"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.... A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them."
But is it true that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation?
And if so, did Henry escape such desperation himself? And who, if anyone, can answer these questions?
As many have noted, the mass of men and women lead lives today of unquiet desperation. A frantic busyness ("business") pervades our society wherever we look—in city and country, among young and old and middle-aged, married and unmarried, all races, classes, sexes, in work and play, in religion, the arts, the sciences, and perhaps most conspicuously in the self-conscious cult of meditation, retreat, withdrawal.
The symptoms of universal unease and disease are apparent on every side.