"Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth"
About this Quote
Beerbohm’s line is a velvet-gloved shiv aimed at modernity’s favorite idol: originality. He pretends to offer prudent advice - stick to the proven, avoid the untested - but the exaggeration is the joke. “Anything worth doing” has been done “frequently”? That’s not wisdom; it’s a deliberately suffocating worldview, the kind a timid society repeats to excuse its own stagnation. The comic engine here is his calm, almost fussy cadence (“I suspect,” “wide berth”), which makes the cynicism sound like etiquette.
The subtext is double: a performer’s awareness that novelty is often just a costume, and a satirist’s suspicion that our hunger for the unprecedented can be naive, even vulgar. Beerbohm came out of the late-Victorian/Edwardian milieu where polish, repetition, and social performance were prized; “worth doing” often meant “already approved by the right people.” The line mimics that class-bound caution while quietly ridiculing it. It’s a parody of conservative taste disguised as conservative taste.
At the same time, it needles the romantic myth of the lone innovator. Beerbohm implies that what we call “new” is usually remix, and what’s truly “hitherto undone” may be undone for a reason - dangerous, pointless, or simply not as glamorous as its marketing. The punch is that he offers cowardice as sophistication, and trusts the audience to hear the cowardice underneath.
The subtext is double: a performer’s awareness that novelty is often just a costume, and a satirist’s suspicion that our hunger for the unprecedented can be naive, even vulgar. Beerbohm came out of the late-Victorian/Edwardian milieu where polish, repetition, and social performance were prized; “worth doing” often meant “already approved by the right people.” The line mimics that class-bound caution while quietly ridiculing it. It’s a parody of conservative taste disguised as conservative taste.
At the same time, it needles the romantic myth of the lone innovator. Beerbohm implies that what we call “new” is usually remix, and what’s truly “hitherto undone” may be undone for a reason - dangerous, pointless, or simply not as glamorous as its marketing. The punch is that he offers cowardice as sophistication, and trusts the audience to hear the cowardice underneath.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|
More Quotes by Max
Add to List
