Soren Kierkegaard

putting his mouth where his money was, and both seem to have been put
to good use: “Without extravagance I would never have been able to work
on the scale that I did; for my extravagance has always been calculated solely
in order to keep me productive on this enormous scale.”
Petty-minded posterity has reveled in taking offense at these expensive
habits, but only because in its jealousy and jaundice it has proposed that
Kierkegaard ought to have subjected himself to an asceticism to which pos-
terity would itself say thanks, but no thanks.