...our daily life must inevitably be passed in an environment which we have not chosen for ourselves, but which we have to accept and transfigure. We must be on our guard against the mirages of the prophetic consciousness, for the vocation of prophet is an exceptional one and can only be submitted to. Let us never believe too lightly that we ought to sacrifice the duties of our situation in life to higher obligations, which may be no more than phantoms born of our own boredom or our own pride.
Gabriel Marcel, "The Drama of the Soul in Exile," Three Plays, Hill and Wang (New York: 1965) p. 33.