Sebastian

“The productions of the pencil present themselves to our eyes as living things; but if we interrogate them, they maintain a dignified silence. It is the same with writing, which knows not what to say to one man, nor what to conceal from another. If you attack it or insult it without a cause, it cannot defend itself; for its author is never present to sustain it. So that he who imagines himself
capable of establishing, clearly, and permanently, one single doctrine, by
writing alone, IS A GREAT BLOCKHEAD.”
― Joseph de Maistre, Essai sur le Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques et des Autres Institutions Humaines