The abyss, part two

Ten times over I must assay the task, must lean down over the abyss. And each time the cowardice that deters us from every difficult task, every important enterprise, has urged me to leave the thing alone, to drink my tea and to think merely of the worries of today and my hopes for tomorrow, which can be brooded over painlessly.


He pulls no punches on himself; when he speak globally, he's not just talking to us. Although that's part of it. "The cowardice that deters us from every difficult task": ouch.