“I am not a controversialist; it is so much more satisfying in every sphere of life to get on with the job, whatever it may be, than to talk incessantly about the job, so that in the end, in the multitude of words, we all prevent each other from doing anything.”

Alexander Gray (1882-1968), Four-and-Forty: A Selection of Danish Ballads Presented in Scots (Edinburgh: The University Press, 1954), p. xvi.