“Usually he flew to Paris, but in 1929, when the fifth volume of his Manilius was nearing completion, he went by train. He was asked why, and replied that the percentage of accidents was much higher in air-travel, and that, until his Manilius was complete, his life was too valuable to risk unnecessarily.”
-A.S.F. Gow, A.E. Housman: A Sketch (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press) p.56
And here I thought you might be brave enough to quote some Manilius….