J.E. Sandys, A History of Classical Scholarship Vol. 3:
“Lobeck’s wit and humour, as well as his devotion to the old Greek texts, are well exemplified -in a short letter to Meineke :
‘What is this that I hear, my dear friend? I can hardly believe my ears. Are you really wanting to visit Italy ? Why Italy, of all parts of the world ? Simply to see a few statues with broken noses ? NO ! If I cannot visit Niagara, or the Mississippi, or Hekla, I prefer sitting here beside my own warm stove, reading GREEK SCHOLIASTS, which is, after all, the true end of the life of man.'”
If one could add a glass of scotch, or, for earlier hours, a dark coffee brew, this doesn’t sound like a terrible way to spend the years…
(And you knew I would love this one. Give me some Dindorf and Erbse over most trash on TV any day of the week. Perhaps in the future, erstwhile Academics will be reading the scholia to “Breaking Bad” and “Dexter”…..
I knew that this would be right up your alley – it is well established that you have impeccable taste in quotations.