Daily Inspiration Quote by J. G. Holland

Holland’s line flatters Victorian sentimentality, then quietly weaponizes it. “The choicest thing” sounds like a connoisseur talking about wine or real estate, not feelings, and that’s the point: affection is framed as a scarce luxury in a world obsessed with acquiring everything else. The phrasing turns intimacy into a kind of moral currency, a corrective to the era’s restless striving. In an America accelerating through industrial growth and market logic, Holland smuggles a counter-valuation into the same language of appraisal: if you’re going to rank possessions, rank the human ones highest.

The gendering matters. “For a man” isn’t a neutral placeholder; it’s a small cultural intervention. Mid-19th-century masculinity rewarded self-reliance, stoicism, and public achievement. Holland suggests that the most “choice” prize isn’t triumph but tenderness received and sustained. The subtext is almost pastoral: the successful man is in danger of starving in plain sight, overfed on status but undernourished emotionally.

Affection here also performs social discipline. It’s not wild passion; it’s a softer, socially legible bond - the kind that stabilizes marriages, families, congregations, and communities. Holland, a novelist with a moralizing streak typical of his moment, makes affection both consolation and instruction: if you want a life that isn’t hollow, cultivate what can’t be bought but can be earned through care. The sentence’s calm certainty is its persuasive tactic - it sounds like wisdom you’d be embarrassed to dispute.