Daily Inspiration Quote by Michael Korda

Korda is taking a quiet swing at the most seductive posture in public life: righteous agitation masquerading as thought. The phrasing is deliberately clipped and faintly old-world ("purely", "detailed consideration"), which matters. He is not condemning passion; he is condemning the idea that passion can substitute for the hard, boring work of understanding. "Attitude" is the tell. It frames agitation as a stance you can adopt, a performance you can put on, rather than an argument you can defend.

The line’s intent is disciplinary. Korda, a novelist with a long view of power and personality, is reminding readers that subjects worth arguing about are usually complicated enough to punish certainty. Agitation thrives on simplification: it needs villains, slogans, clean arcs. Detailed consideration insists on messy causes, mixed motives, and trade-offs. That’s the subtext: if you want the satisfactions of outrage, you may have to give up the satisfactions of accuracy.

Contextually, Korda writes from a milieu where opinion often arrives prepackaged - publishing, media, politics-adjacent conversation - and where the loudest voice can be mistaken for the most serious mind. The quote lands as a critique of activism-as-aesthetic, but it also works as a warning to intellectuals who confuse critique with comprehension. It’s not anti-engagement; it’s anti-shortcut. The real insult isn’t that agitation is wrong. It’s that, on its own, it’s lazy.