Freedom as a Fine Art

A friend who saw a great deal of Albert Jay Nock during his long sojourns in Belgium once said to me, “I don’t know how he does it; but when you’re with Albert Nock you find yourself coming out with things you didn’t know you had it in you to say.”

This effect of certain rich personalities on those privileged to associate with them is not easy to explain; more especially since not all rich personalities produce it. Perhaps it is brought about by a spiritual courtesy; a tolerant expectancy; possibly, more than anything else, by a willingness to help the truth along without encumbering it with themselves, to use an expression which Albert Nock was fond of quoting. Nock, for example, was temperamentally incapable of taking you down, when you mentioned a good idea that had just come to you, with, “Of course. That is exactly what I said in my last article.” (In all the years I knew him, I never once heard him quote himself.) He tacitly granted your right to independent discovery and discussed your offering on its merits.

SF

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Suzanne La Follette

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A friend who saw a great deal of Albert Jay Nock during his long sojourns in Belgium once said to me, “I don’t know how he does it; but when you’re with Albert Nock you find yourself coming out with things you didn’t know you had it in you to say.”

This effect of certain rich personalities on those privileged to associate with them is not easy to explain; more especially since not all rich personalities produce it. Perhaps it is brought about by a spiritual courtesy; a tolerant expectancy; possibly, more than anything else, by a willingness to help the truth along without encumbering it with themselves, to use an expression which Albert Nock was fond of quoting. Nock, for example, was temperamentally incapable of taking you down, when you mentioned a good idea that had just come to you, with, “Of course. That is exactly what I said in my last article.” (In all the years I knew him, I never once heard him quote himself.) He tacitly granted your right to independent discovery and discussed your offering on its merits.