"No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person"
About this Quote
Security built on someone else's virtue is a house built on weather. Cather's line has the plain, stern clarity of prairie architecture: no ornament, no cushion, just an insistence on what holds up when the wind turns. "Nobleness" is doing a lot of work here. It's not just goodness; it's the kind of moral steadiness we want to believe in, the story we tell ourselves about who will come through, who will stay kind, who will keep their promises because that's who they are. Cather punctures that comforting fantasy.
The intent feels less like cynicism than like a hard-won realism. In Cather's world - immigrant towns, frontier economies, social reputations that can evaporate overnight - survival depends on factors that outmuscle character: scarcity, ambition, illness, desire. Even a noble person can be exhausted, cornered, changed by circumstance. Betting your safety on their permanence is an abdication of responsibility disguised as trust.
The subtext is also about power. When you rely on another's "nobleness", you quietly demand that they remain better than human so you can remain unprepared. That turns virtue into an unpaid job. Cather refuses that bargain. She suggests dignity comes from building a life that doesn't require anyone else to be a saint: financial independence, emotional self-command, practical competence, clear-eyed expectations.
In an era that sold moral uplift as social insurance, the line reads like an antidote. It's not a rejection of goodness; it's a warning against outsourcing your future to it.
The intent feels less like cynicism than like a hard-won realism. In Cather's world - immigrant towns, frontier economies, social reputations that can evaporate overnight - survival depends on factors that outmuscle character: scarcity, ambition, illness, desire. Even a noble person can be exhausted, cornered, changed by circumstance. Betting your safety on their permanence is an abdication of responsibility disguised as trust.
The subtext is also about power. When you rely on another's "nobleness", you quietly demand that they remain better than human so you can remain unprepared. That turns virtue into an unpaid job. Cather refuses that bargain. She suggests dignity comes from building a life that doesn't require anyone else to be a saint: financial independence, emotional self-command, practical competence, clear-eyed expectations.
In an era that sold moral uplift as social insurance, the line reads like an antidote. It's not a rejection of goodness; it's a warning against outsourcing your future to it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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