Lives of quiet desperation

“Most people are not free. Freedom, in fact, frightens them. They follow patterns set by their parents, enforced by society, by their terrors of ‘they say’ and ‘what will they think?’ and by a constant inner dialogue that weighs duty against desire and pronounces duty the winner.
‘Lives of quiet desperation’ Thoreau called such lives – though today’s version is noisy desperation. Occasionally, a visionary comes along who seems to have conquered his fears in himself and to live with bravado and courage. People are at once terrified of such a creature – and admiring. They are also envious.”
(The Rosy Crucifixion - Henry Miller)