Thanks, Saul. I'd forgot that FSF had a follow-up line:
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise." The nearest thing to an art connection that comes to my mind is this: An artist can be totally convinced of his own imperfection, and yet also be convinced that for at least some fleeting moment in his art he can do something perfect. But that's only my own thought, not a published alteration of the FSF line.
