human
What does Dorothy Parker mean by “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”?
assistant
That’s a quote from her book The Portable Dorothy Parker. The quote is from a poem by Robert Frost called “The Death of the Hired Man.” The poem is about a man who is hired to help with the harvest. He feels guilty about leaving his family behind, and when he returns home he finds that his wife has died. The man then says, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” The line is a reference to the fact that the man was not fully devoted to his family.