Mostly, matters of any consequence are three-sided, or four-sided, or polygonal; and the trotting round a polygon is severe work for people any way stiff in their opinions. For myself, I am never satisfied that I have handled a subject properly till I have contradicted myself at least three times.
– John Ruskin, Inaugural Address at the Cambridge School of Art (1858)
John Ruskin.
This reminds me of Matthew Arnold’s continued injunctions against the “stock notions” of the philistine middling classes. …Your quote also reminds me that I have a biography of Ruskin on my shelf that keeps asking me for a read. – TL