One would like to be grand and heroic, if one could; but if not, why try at all? One wants to be very something, very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me.
Bio: James Taranto is an American journalist and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, editor of its former online editorial page OpinionJournal.com and a member of the newspaper's editorial board.
