"Electronic brains may help us to use our heads but will not excuse us from that duty, and as to our hearts-cardiograms cannot diagnose what may be most ill about them, or confirm what may be best. The faithful woman and the versatile brave man, the wakeful intelligence open to inspiration or grace-these are still exemplary for our kind, as they always were and always will be."

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Source: Robert Fitzgerald, Penelope Laurans Fitzgerald (1993). “The Third Kind of Knowledge: Memoirs & Selected Writings”, p.185, New Directions Publishing

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Robert Fitzgerald

Poet

Robert Fitzgerald was an influential American poet and translator, renowned for his translations of Homer’s epics, which brought new depth to classical literature.

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