Informant38

here's the whole kit and caboodle, right on the money

via the New Yorker

in which eminent rag Edna O'Brien quotes Romain Rolland thus:

"I read years ago a remark by Romain Rolland, which has stayed with me. He said, "Art is a great consolation to the individual but it is useless against history." However, since everyone here today, and hopefully many others, are on the consolation quest, both as hostages to and witnesses of history, it is not the time to be pusillanimous or silenced by our helplessness."