Every petition and every motion for liberty of the press is already an insurrection, be it conscious or unconscious: a thing which Philistine Halfness alone will not and cannot confess to itself until, with a shrinking shudder, it shall see it clearly and irrefutably by the outcome.
"The Ego and His Own"
Max Stirner
After all the homage which Emerson pays to the intellect of Shakespeare, he weighs him with the rest of mankind, and finds that he shares "the Halfness and imperfection of humanity."
"The Complete PG Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
Two or three sayings in it will show his view sufficiently:- The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well-intended Halfness; a non-performance of what is pretended to be performed, at the same time that one is giving loud pledges of performance.
"The Complete PG Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)