The quote below is from CS Lewis, author of the classic children’s series Chronicles of Narnia as well as such theological books as Mere Christianity and Screwtape Letters, and was delivered in 1939. The calamity referred to is the Nazi aggression that was then sweeping over Europe in general and the invasion of Poland in particular.

“I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with “normal life”. Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of crises, alarms, difficulties, emergencies. Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right. But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons. They wanted knowledge and beauty now, and would not wait for the suitable moment that never comes. Periclean Athens leaves us not only the Parthenon but, significantly, the Funeral Oration. The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are different. They propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss the latest new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache: it is our nature.”

I had initially written several paragraphs about this quote - fairly long winded and indulgent, to be honest - but they didn’t seem to be working. So in the interest of brevity here’s what I was trying to say in a nutshell - this is a quote that had quite an impact on me when I read it for the first time years ago - to me, it’s basically saying “things are never going to be perfect so get on with it”.