“
When you are gunning to be like other people, you are foolishly repeating their mistakes, and the worst of it all is that you can't even correct yours.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!
”
”
Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man)
“
Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished; acted people's parts as he ate; mouthed them as he walked; now cried; now laughed; vacillated between this style and that; now preferred the heroic and pompous; next the plain and simple; now the vales of Tempe; then the fields of Kent or Cornwall; and could not decide whether he was the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
“
Books lie, he said.
God dont lie.
No, said the judge. He does not. And these are his words.
He held up a chunk of rock.
He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things.
The squatters in their rags nodded among themselves and were soon reckoning him correct, this man of learning, in all his speculations, and this the judge encouraged until they were right proselytes of the new order whereupon he laughed at them for fools.
”
”
Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West)
“
You damn fool. You realize, even if all your assumptions are correct-even then, you still have to steal the world's most coveted sword from the world's safest place then be pursued by the ultimate hunter until you reach the heart of an enemy country in the middle of a war in which any side will happily kill you as a traitor, a spy, a wytch, or all three?"
"I thought you'd like it.
”
”
Brent Weeks (Beyond the Shadows (Night Angel, #3))
“
I learned over the years never to correct a fool or he will hate you; correct a wise man, and he will appreciate you.
”
”
Ziad K. Abdelnour
“
„You're Ned Stark's bastard, aren't you?“
Jon felt a coldness pass right through him. He pressed his lips together and said nothing.
„Did I offend you?“ Lannister said. „Sorry. Dwarfs don't have to be tactful. Generations of capering fools in motley have won me the right to dress badly and say any damn thing that comes into my head.“ He grinned. „You are the bastard, though.“
„Lord Eddard Stark is my father,“ Jon admitted stiffly.
Lannister studied his face. „Yes,“ he said. „I can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers.“
„Half brothers,“ Jon corrected. He was pleased by the dwarf's comment, but he tried not to let it show.
„Let me give you some counsel, bastard,“ Lannister said. „Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strenght. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.“
Jon was in no mood for anyone's counsel. „What do you know about being a bastard?“
„All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes.“
„You are your mother's trueborn son of Lannister.“
„Am I?“ the dwarf replied, sardonic. „Do tell my lord father. My mother died birthing me, and he's never been sure.“
„I don't even know who my mother was,“ Jon said.
„Some woman, no doubt. Most of them are.“ He favored Jon with a rueful grin. „Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs.“ And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
“
Perhaps the reason we so often experience happiness only in hindsight, and that chasing it is such a fool’s errand, is that happiness isn’t a goal in itself but is only an aftereffect. It’s the consequence of having lived in the way that we’re supposed to — by which I don’t mean ethically correctly so much as just consciously, fully engaged in the business of living. In this respect it resembles averted vision, a phenomena familiar to backyard astronomers whereby, in order to pick out a very faint star, you have to let your gaze drift casually to the space just next to it; if you look directly at it, it vanishes. And it’s also true, come to think of it, that the only stars we ever see are not the “real” stars, those cataclysms taking place in the present, but always only the light of the untouchable past.
”
”
Tim Kreider
“
THE CORRECTION, when it finally came, was not an overnight bursting of a bubble but a much more gentle letdown, a year-long leakage of value from key financial markets, a contraction too gradual to generate headlines and too predictable to seriously hurt anybody but fools and the working poor.
”
”
Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections)
“
Do not correct a fool or he will hate you, correct a wise man and he will appreciate you.
”
”
Bruce Lee
“
A wise man can make a mistake, but only a fool fails to correct it.
”
”
Natasha Solomons (House of Gold)
“
Recently I interviewed a psychopath. This is always a humbling experience because it teaches over and over how much of human motivation and experience is outside my narrow range. Despite the psychopath's lack of conscience and lack of empathy for others, he is inevitably better at fooling people than any other type of offender. I suppose conscience just slows you down. A child convicted molester, this particular one made friends with a correctional officer who invited him to live in his home after he was released - despite the fact the officer had a nine-year-old daughter.
The officer and his wife were so taken with the offender that, after the offender lived with them for a few months, they initiated adoption proceedings- adoption for a man almost their age. Of course, he was a child molester living in the same house as a child. Not surprisingly, he molested the daughter the entire time he lived there. [...]
What these experiences taught have me is that even when people are warned of a previously founded case of even a conviction, they still routinely underestimate the pathology with which they are dealing.
”
”
Anna C. Salter (Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders)
“
People often tell themselves lies, in order to reach what they consider acceptance in difficult situations. In reality, they fool themselves into believing they are healed, until that lie is corrected by time, further information or their own personal growth. True healing comes when we learn to not avoid truth, but face it. Only then will we be set free.
”
”
Shannon L. Alder
“
Most of my failures can be ascribed to the fact that I chose that which was ‘easy’ over that which was ‘right’. And while it’s ‘right’ to admit this to myself, it isn’t ‘easy.’ So, which choice am I going to make this time?
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
Yes—I think you’re correct,” he nodded as he returned. “It isn’t saying much, sergeant, but you’re not quite the fool you look.”
“Very kind of you to say so,” grunted the sergeant.
“Not at all. Haven’t you noticed how full of compliments I am?
”
”
J. Jefferson Farjeon (Seven Dead)
“
Jimmy was no fool but he’d been well loved by good parents and well taught by good teachers, and those two facts accounted for the habit of obedience that mystified and enraged Peggy Soong. Over and over in his life, authority had proven correct and the decisions of his parents and teachers and bosses made sense to him eventually.
”
”
Mary Doria Russell (The Sparrow (The Sparrow, #1))
“
Don't confuse me for that other girl,
She's a fraud and a fool.
Don't confuse me with anyone else,
I am not anyone other than myself.
”
”
Maddy Kobar (The Songs of The Gullible Wiseman: The Early Poems of Maddy Kobar, 2008-2013)
“
We are faulty and there is no need to bother trying to correct our flaws. We are so defective and so mismatched to our environment that we can just work around these flaws. I
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto Book 1))
“
Each circle spins off a circle of its own. Each one seems a new thing but in truth it is not. It is just our most recent attempt to correct old errors, to undo old wrongs done to us, and to make up for things we have neglected. In each cycle, we may correct old errors, but I think we make as many new ones. Yet what is our alternative? To commit the same old errors again? Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.
”
”
Robin Hobb (Golden Fool (Tawny Man, #2))
“
Leonardo is both an extraordinary left-brained academician obsessed with portraying perspective correctly and an impish right-brained trickster who takes delight in fooling the viewer with perspectivist sleights of hand.
”
”
Leonard Shlain (Leonardo's Brain: Understanding Da Vinci's Creative Genius)
“
I wore only black socks, because I had heard that white ones were the classic sign of the American tourist. Black ones though,- those'll fool 'em. I supposed I hoped the European locals' conversation would go something like this:
PIERRE: Ha! Look at that tourist with his camera and guidebook!
JACQUES: Wait, but observe his socks! They are...black!
PIERRE: Zut alors! You are correct! He is one of us! What a fool I am! Let us go speak to him in English and invite him to lunch!
”
”
Doug Mack (Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide)
“
Imagine taking a test knowing the answer. While we know that history flows forward, it is difficult to realize that we envision it backward. Why is it so? We will discuss the point in Chapter 11 but here is a possible explanation: Our minds are not quite designed to understand how the world works, but, rather, to get out of trouble rapidly and have progeny. If they were made for us to understand things, then we would have a machine in it that would run the past history as in a VCR, with a correct chronology, and it would slow us down so much that we would have trouble operating. Psychologists call this overestimation of what one knew at the time of the event due to subsequent information the hindsight bias, the “I knew it all along” effect.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto Book 1))
“
There is no way to love a man. Not well, or rather, not correctly. Maggie knows this and loves him anyway — a vast stupidity of love that a part of her views with a painful sort of irony. Of course you love him, you fool, you idiot. What an utterly moronic thing to go and do.
”
”
Julia Armfield (Salt Slow)
“
I'm in a hole because at some point I found a shovel and started digging. Maybe I should trade my shovels for ladders and start climbing.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
It’s thinking that I had the solution that probably created the problem in the first place.
”
”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“
I smiled the private smile of the corrected fool
”
”
Charlotte Shane (Prostitute Laundry)
“
Only a fool pursues perfection, the wise pursues self-correction.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society)
“
Parents are not bestowed with angels to cherish, but unripe fools to correct" (Proverbs 22: 15)
”
”
Royal Raj S
“
Odysseus' favourite pose had been to pretend that he was a man like other men, but there were none like him, and now that he was dead, there were none at all. All heroes are fools, he liked to say. What he meant was, all heroes but me. So who could correct him when he erred? He had stood on the beach looking at Telegonus and believing him a pirate. He had stood in his hall and accused Telemachus of conspiracy. Two children he had had, and he had not seen either clearly. But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.
”
”
Madeline Miller (Circe)
“
There are people everywhere who form a Forth World, or a diaspora of their own. They are the lordly ones. They come in all colours. They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or atheists. They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or pacifists, rich or poor. They may be patriots, but are never chauvinists. They share with each other, across all the nations, common values of humour and understanding. When you are among them you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically. They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean. They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion or political correctness. They are exiles in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they only knew it. It is the nation of nowhere, and I have come to believe that its natural capital is Trieste.
”
”
Jan Morris (Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere)
“
All heroes are fools, he liked to say. What he meant was, all heroes but me. So who could correct him when he erred? He had stood on the beach looking at Telegonus and believing him a pirate. He had stood in his hall and accused Telemachus of conspiracy. Two children he had had, and he had not seen either clearly. But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.
”
”
Madeline Miller (Circe)
“
In my travels on the surface, I once met a man who wore his religious beliefs like a badge of honor upon the sleeves of his tunic. "I am a Gondsman!" he proudly told me as we sat beside eachother at a tavern bar, I sipping my wind, and he, I fear, partaking a bit too much of his more potent drink. He went on to explain the premise of his religion, his very reason for being, that all things were based in science, in mechanics and in discovery. He even asked if he could take a piece of my flesh, that he might study it to determine why the skin of the drow elf is black. "What element is missing," he wondered, "that makes your race different from your surface kin?"
I think that the Gondsman honestly believed his claim that if he could merely find the various elements that comprised the drow skin, he might affect a change in that pigmentation to make the dark elves more akin to their surface relatives. And, given his devotion, almost fanaticism, it seemed to me as if he felt he could affect a change in more than physical appearance.
Because, in his view of the world, all things could be so explained and corrected. How could i even begin to enlighten him to the complexity? How could i show him the variations between drow and surface elf in the very view of the world resulting from eons of walking widely disparate roads?
To a Gondsman fanatic, everything can be broken down, taken apart and put back together. Even a wizard's magic might be no more than a way of conveying universal energies - and that, too, might one day be replicated. My Gondsman companion promised me that he and his fellow inventor priests would one day replicate every spell in any wizard's repertoire, using natural elements in the proper combinations.
But there was no mention of the discipline any wizard must attain as he perfects his craft. There was no mention of the fact that powerful wizardly magic is not given to anyone, but rather, is earned, day by day, year by year and decade by decade. It is a lifelong pursuit with gradual increase in power, as mystical as it is secular.
So it is with the warrior. The Gondsman spoke of some weapon called an arquebus, a tubular missile thrower with many times the power of the strongest crossbow.
Such a weapon strikes terror into the heart of the true warrior, and not because he fears that he will fall victim to it, or even that he fears it will one day replace him. Such weapons offend because the true warrior understands that while one is learning how to use a sword, one should also be learning why and when to use a sword. To grant the power of a weapon master to anyone at all, without effort, without training and proof that the lessons have taken hold, is to deny the responsibility that comes with such power.
Of course, there are wizards and warriors who perfect their craft without learning the level of emotional discipline to accompany it, and certainly there are those who attain great prowess in either profession to the detriment of all the world - Artemis Entreri seems a perfect example - but these individuals are, thankfully, rare, and mostly because their emotional lacking will be revealed early in their careers, and it often brings about a fairly abrupt downfall. But if the Gondsman has his way, if his errant view of paradise should come to fruition, then all the years of training will mean little. Any fool could pick up an arquebus or some other powerful weapon and summarily destroy a skilled warrior. Or any child could utilize a Gondsman's magic machine and replicate a firebal, perhaps, and burn down half a city.
When I pointed out some of my fears to the Gondsman, he seemed shocked - not at the devastating possibilities, but rather, at my, as he put it, arrogance. "The inventions of the priests of Gond will make all equal!" he declared. "We will lift up the lowly peasant
”
”
R.A. Salvatore (Streams of Silver (Forgotten Realms: Icewind Dale, #2; Legend of Drizzt, #5))
“
Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished; acted his people’s parts as he ate; mouthed them as he walked; now cried; now laughed; vacillated between this style and that; now preferred the heroic and pompous; next the plain and simple; now the vales of Tempe; then the fields of Kent or Cornwall; and could not decide whether he was the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
“
Beware the confusion between correctness and intelligibility. Part of conventional wisdom favors things that can be explained rather instantly and “in a nutshell”—in many circles it is considered law. Having attended a French elementary school, a lycée primaire, I was trained to rehash Boileau’s adage: Ce qui se conçoit bien s’énonce clairement Et les mots pour le dire viennent aisément What is easy to conceive is clear to express / Words to say it would come effortlessly.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto Book 1))
“
Everyone outside the Party was a fool or a knave. They wrote up Professor Joad in the Standard, and a gentle reader complained of the epithets - 'ignoramous', 'fathead', etc; the EC informed him that they thought the words precise and correct.
”
”
Robert Barltrop
“
How he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had good nights and bad mornings... and could not decide whether he was the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
“
Needless to say that the ideas of this book fall squarely into the Tragic category: We are faulty and there is no need to bother trying to correct our flaws. We are so defective and so mismatched to our environment that we can just work around these flaws.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto Book 1))
“
How he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in' was in ecstasy' in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings... and could not decide whether he was the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
“
The key is whether or not we can hear from others where we are wrong, and accept their feedback without getting defensive. Time and again, the Bible says that someone who listens to feedback from others is wise, but someone who does not is a fool. As Proverbs 9:7–9 says: “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.
”
”
Henry Cloud (Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't)
“
The insistence is on merit, insinuating that any current majority white leadership in any industry has got there through hard work and no outside help, as if whiteness isn’t its own leg-up, as if it doesn’t imply a familiarity that warms an interviewer to a candidate. When each of the sectors I mentioned earlier have such dire racial representation, you’d have to be fooling yourself if you really think that the homogeneous glut of middle-aged white men currently clogging the upper echelons of most professions got there purely through talent alone. We don’t live in a meritocracy, and to pretend that simple hard work will elevate all to success is an exercise in wilful ignorance.
Opposing positive discrimination based on apprehensions about getting the best person for the job means inadvertently revealing what you think talent looks like, and the kind of person in which you think talent resides. Because if the current system worked correctly, and if hiring practices were successfully recruiting and promoting the right people for the right jobs in all circumstances, I seriously doubt that so many leadership positions would be occupied by white middle-aged men.
”
”
Reni Eddo-Lodge (Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race)
“
There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a diaspora of their own.
They are the lordly ones! They come in all colors.
They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or atheists.
They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or pacifists, rich or poor.
They may be patriots, but they are never chauvinists.
They share with each other, across all the nations, common values of humor and understanding.
When you are among them you know you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically.
They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean.
They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion, or political correctness.
They are exiles in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they only knew it.
It is the nation of nowhere.
”
”
Jan Morris
“
Sandy: Carl I want you to kill all the gophers on the golf course.
Carl Spackler: Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers they'll lock me up and throw away the key.
Sandy: Not golfers, you great fool. Gophers. The little brown, furry rodents.
Carl Spackler: We can do that. We don't even need a reason.
”
”
Carl Spackler
“
Wars are won by men like Bill Darby, storming up the beach with all guns blazing, and by men like Leverton, sipping his tea as the bombs fell. They are won by planners correctly calculating how many rations and contraceptives an invading force will need; by tacticians laying out grand strategy; by generals inspiring the men they command; by politicians galvanizing the will to fight; and by writers putting war into words. They are won by acts of strength, bravery, and guile. But they are also won by feats of imagination. Amateur, unpublished novelists, the framers of Operation Mincemeat, dreamed up the most unlikely concatenation of events, rendered them believable, and sent them off to war, changing reality through lateral thinking and proving that it is possible to win a battle fought in the mind, from behind a desk, and from beyond the grave. Operation Mincemeat was pure make-believe; and it made Hitler believe something that changed the course of history.
”
”
Ben Macintyre (Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory)
“
Most people oversimplify Occam’s razor to mean the simplest answer is usually correct. But the real meaning, what the Franciscan friar William of Ockham really wanted to emphasize, is that you shouldn’t complicate, that you shouldn’t “stack” a theory if a simpler explanation was at the ready. Pare it down. Prune the excess.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Fool Me Once)
“
The True Believer ignores anything that doesn't fit his belief system. Instead, he inevitably comes to hold those beliefs at a very profound level. They can become absolutely part of his identity. It is this that brings together the religious, the psychic, the cynic (as opposed to the open skeptic) and the narrow-minded of all kinds. It is something I encountered a lot among my fellow Christians. At one level it can be seen in the circular discussion which goes as follows:
Why do you believe in the bible?
Because it is Gods word.
And why do you believe in God?
Because of what it says in the bible.
At a less obvious level, it can be seen in the following common exchange:
Why do you believe Christianity is true?
Because I have the experience of a personal relationship with God.
So how do you know you're not fooling yourself?
Because i know it is real.
Even as an enthusiastic believer myself I could see this kind of tautology at work, and over time I realized that it is common to all forms of True Belief., regardless of the particular belief in question. The fact is, it's enormously difficult - and you need to be fantastically brave - to overcome the circularity of your own ideologies. But just because our identity might be tied up with what we believe, it doesn't make that belief any more correct. One wishes that True Believers of any sort would learn a little modesty in their convictions.
”
”
Derren Brown (Tricks of the Mind)
“
But your habits undergo no change in this pretense? Or do you think anyone was fooled yesterday by your so-called 'appointment' last night? That is what you told your mother, correct? That you had an appointment?"
His eyes came back to hers. "Are we showing signs of jealousy again?"
"I'm asking a pertinent question," she said stiffly. "If you think this pretense is going to only be one-sided, then it ends now."
Incredibly,his humor returned abruptly, his grin quite wide. "Before you start turning green, I suppose I must admit that appointment wasn't a good word for it, since it wasn't a scheduled meeting. I merely went to see my solicitor,and,no, he doesn't wear skirts."
She ignored that ridiculous attempt at a joke.
”
”
Johanna Lindsey (A Rogue of My Own (Reid Family, #3))
“
You can argue with a thousand scholars but not with one fool who thinks he's correct and perfect all the time. It's just simple as a frog in the well thinks its dark, damp well is the whole universe. Secretly trying to imitate, but he knows he cannot change his mindset. He would point out your faults for self satisfaction. Just accept what they say and help them to live a long life!
”
”
Heshan Udunuwara
“
In testing primality of very large numbers chosen at random, the chance of stumbling upon a value that fools the Fermat test is less than the chance that cosmic radiation will cause the computer to make an error in carrying out a "correct" algorithm. Considering an algorithm to be inadequate for the first reason but not for the second illustrates the difference between mathematics and engineering.
”
”
Harold Abelson (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)
“
Nassim Taleb writes in his book Fooled By Randomness: In Pharaonic Egypt … scribes tracked the high-water mark of the Nile and used it as an estimate for a future worst-case scenario. The same can be seen in the Fukushima nuclear reactor, which experienced a catastrophic failure in 2011 when a tsunami struck. It had been built to withstand the worst past historical earthquake, with the builders not imagining much worse—and not thinking that the worst past event had to be a surprise, as it had no precedent. This is not a failure of analysis. It’s a failure of imagination. Realizing the future might not look anything like the past is a special kind of skill that is not generally looked highly upon by the financial forecasting community. At a 2017 dinner I attended in New York, Daniel Kahneman was asked how investors should respond when our forecasts are wrong. He said: Whenever we are surprised by something, even if we admit that we made a mistake, we say, ‘Oh I’ll never make that mistake again.’ But, in fact, what you should learn when you make a mistake because you did not anticipate something is that the world is difficult to anticipate. That’s the correct lesson to learn from surprises: that the world is surprising.
”
”
Morgan Housel (The Psychology of Money)
“
Your perception is correct.I am what you describe."
"Which one?The gruff fool or the fair wise man?" Laon inquired,simultaneously releasing a half smile.
Ranulf cocked his right brow.It had been a long time since he had done any self-examination, and last time he had,the cpnclusion had been unsettling. "I do not know myself. I probably have the capacity to be either...depending on the conversation."
"Fair answer.I think I might like you yet, my lord.
”
”
Michele Sinclair (The Christmas Knight)
“
He soon perceived, however, that the battles which Sir Miles and the
rest had waged against armed knights to win a kingdom, were not half so
arduous as this which he now undertook to win immortality against the
English language. Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition
will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed
good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was
in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at
ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished; acted
his people's parts as he ate; mouthed them as he walked; now cried; now
laughed; vacillated between this style and that; now preferred the heroic
and pompous; next the plain and simple; now the vales of Tempe; then the
fields of Kent or Cornwall; and could not decide whether he was the divinest
genius or the greatest fool in the world.
”
”
Virginia Woolf
“
People who are in the business of hating the relatively new-fashioned use of “begs the question” hate it vehemently, and they hate it loudly. Unfortunately, subbing in “raises the question” or “inspires the query” or any number of other phrasings fools no one; one can always detect the deleted “begs the question,” a kind of prose pentimento, for those of you who were paying attention in art history class or have read Lillian Hellman’s thrilling if dubiously accurate memoir.
”
”
Benjamin Dreyer (Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style)
“
There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a diaspora of their own. They are the lordly ones. They come in all colours. They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or atheists. They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or pacifists, rich or poor. They may be patriots, but they are never chauvinists. They share with each other, across all the nations, common values of humour and understanding. When you are among them you know you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically. They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean. They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion or political correctness. They are exiles in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they only knew it. It is the nation of nowhere, and I have come to think that its natural capital is Trieste.
”
”
Jan Morris (Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere)
“
many to deny. What does it all mean? he wanted to cry. “Maester Cressen, we have visitors.” Pylos spoke softly, as if loath to disturb Cressen’s solemn meditations. Had he known what drivel filled the maester’s head, he would have shouted. “The princess would see the white raven.” Ever correct, Pylos called her princess now, as her lord father was a king. King of a smoking rock in the great salt sea, yet a king nonetheless. “She would see the white raven. Her fool is with her.” The old man turned away from
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
“
He told her this among other things, very correctly and with a ponderous manliness that masked a real suffering. Loving him not at all she grew sorry for him and kissed him sentimentally one night because he was so charming, a relic of a vanishing generation which lived a priggish and graceful illusion and was being replaced by less gallant fools. Afterward she was glad she had kissed him, for next day when his plane fell fifteen hundred feet at Mineola a piece of a gasolene engine smashed through his heart.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Beautiful and Damned)
“
I'm talking about your lovely long arms and your perfectly shaped legs... I find I am quite jealous of those stockings for knowing the feel of you, the warmth of you." She shifted, unable to keep still beneath the onslaught of his words. "I'm talking about that corset that hugs you where you are lovely and soft... is it uncomfortable?"
She hesitated. "Not usually."
"And now?" She heard the knowledge in the question.
She nodded once. "It's rather- constricting."
He tutted once, and she opened her eyes, instantly meeting his, hot and focused on her. "Poor Pippa. Tell me, with your knowledge of the human body, why do you think that is?"
She swallowed, tried for a deep breath. Failed. "It's because my heart is threatening to beat out of my chest."
The smile again. "Have you overexerted yourself?"
She shook her head. "No."
"What, then?"
She was not a fool. He was pushing her. Attempting to see how far she would go. She told the truth. "I think it is you."
He closed his eyes then, hands fisting again, and pressed his head back against the side of the desk, exposing the long column of his neck and his tightly clenched jaw. Her mouth went dry at the movement, at the way the tendons there bunched and rippled, and she was quite desperate to touch him.
When he returned his gaze to hers, there was something wild in those pewter depths... something she was at once consumed and terrified by. "You shouldn't be so quick with the truth," he said.
"Why?"
"It gives me too much control."
"I trust you."
"You shouldn't." He leaned forward, bracing his arm against his raised knee. "You are not safe with me."
She had never once felt unsafe with him. "I don't think that's correct."
He laughed, low and dark, and the sound rippled through her, a wave of pleasure and temptation. "You have no idea what I could do to you, Philippa Marbury. The ways I could touch you. The wonders I could show you. I could ruin you without thought, sink with you into the depths of sin and not once regret it. I could lead you right into temptation and never ever look back."
The words stole her breath. She wanted it. Every bit of it.
”
”
Sarah MacLean (One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (The Rules of Scoundrels, #2))
“
The history of the own that is grasped on too small a scale and the foreign that is treated too badly reaches an end at the moment when a global co-immunity structure is born, with a respectful inclusion of individual cultures, particular interests and local solidarities. This structure would take on planetary dimensions at the moment when the earth spanned by networks and built over by foams, was conceived as the own, and the previously dominant exploitative excess as the foreign. With this turn, the concretely universal would become operational. The helpless whole is transformed into a unity capable of being protected. A romanticism of brotherliness is replaced by a cooperative logic. Humanity becomes a political concept. Its members are no longer travellers on the ship of fools that is abstract universalism, but workers on the consistently concrete and discrete project of a global immune design. Although communism was a conglomeration of a few correct ideas and many wrong ones, its reasonable part - the understanding that shared life interests of the highest order can only be realized within a horizon of universal co-operative asceticisms - will have to assert itself anew sooner or later. It presses for a macrostructure of global immunizations : co-immunism.
”
”
Peter Sloterdijk (Je moet je leven veranderen)
“
Maester Cressen, we have visitors.” Pylos spoke softly, as if loath to disturb Cressen’s solemn meditations. Had he known what drivel filled the maester’s head, he would have shouted. “The princess would see the white raven.” Ever correct, Pylos called her princess now, as her lord father was a king. King of a smoking rock in the great salt sea, yet a king nonetheless. “She would see the white raven. Her fool is with her.” The old man turned away from the dawn, keeping a hand on his wyvern to steady himself. “Help me to my chair and show them in.” Taking his arm, Pylos led him inside. In his youth, Cressen had walked briskly, but he was
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2))
“
8Understand, you senseless among the people; And you fools, when will you be wise? 9†He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? 10He who cinstructs the dnations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge? 11The LORD †knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile. 12Blessed is the man whom You †instruct, O LORD, And teach out of Your law, 13That You may give him erest from the days of adversity, Until the pit is dug for the wicked. 14For the LORD will not fcast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. 15But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright in heart will follow it.
”
”
Anonymous (Holy Bible, New King James Version)
“
Perhaps you used to think too much of yourself," returned the curate. "For the greatest fool and rascal in creation there is yet a worse condition, and that is—not to know it, but think himself a respectable man. As the event proves, though you would doubtless have laughed at the idea, you were then capable of committing a murder. I have come to see—at least I think I have—that except a man has God dwelling in him, he may be, or may become, capable of any crime within the compass of human nature." "I don't know anything about God," said Leopold. "I daresay I thought I did before this happened—before I did it, I mean," he added in correction,"—but I know now that I don't, and never did." "Ah, Leopold!" said the curate, "think, if my coming to you comforts you, what would it be to have him who made you always with you!
”
”
George MacDonald (Thomas Wingfold, Curate)
“
That first time, we talked about the servant, who had influenza, but when I came back, we somehow started to talk about Greek poetry. And that led to a discussion, if I remember correctly, of Greek and Roman historians. The count is particularly fond of Thucydides. Since I’d gone to the classical liceo, I could talk about them without making a fool of myself, so the count decided I must be a competent doctor. Now he comes to my office every so often, and we talk about Thucydides and Strabo.’ She leaned back against the wall and crossed her ankles in front of her. ‘He’s very much like my other patients. Most of them come to talk about ailments they don’t have and pain they don’t feel. The count is more interesting to talk to, but I suppose there’s really not much difference between them. He’s lonely and old, just like them, and he needs someone to talk to.
”
”
Donna Leon (Death at La Fenice (Commissario Brunetti, #1))
“
In the afternoon he sat in the compound breaking ore samples with a hammer, the feldspar rich in red oxide of copper and native nuggets in whose organic lobations he purported to read news of the earth's origins, holding an extemporary lecture in geology to a small gathering who nodded and spat. A few would quote to him scripture to confound his ordering up of eons out of the ancient chaos and other apostate supposings. The judge smiled.
Books lie, he said.
God dont lie.
No, said the judge, he does not. And these are his words.
He held up a chunk of rock.
He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things.
The squatters in their rags nodded among themselves and were soon reckoning him correct, this man of learning, in all his speculations, and this the judge encouraged until they were right proselytes of the new order whereupon he laughed at them for fools.
”
”
Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West)
“
I used to doubt the Fool when he told me that all of time was a great circuit, and that we are ever doomed to repeat what has been done before. But the older I get, the more I see it is so. I thought then that he meant one great circle entrapped all of us. Instead, I think we are born into our circuits. Like a colt on the end of a training line, we trot in the circular path ordained for us. We go faster, we slow down, we halt on command and we begin again. And each time we think the circle is something new.
Each circle spins off a circle of its own. Each one seems a new thing but in truth it is not. It is just our most recent attempts to correct old errors, to undo old wrongs done to us and to make up for things we have neglected. In each cycle, we may correct old errors, but I think we make as many new ones. Yet what is our alternative? To commit the same old errors again? Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.
”
”
Robin Hobb (Golden Fool (Tawny Man, #2))
“
Theseus Within the Labyrinth pt.2
But nobody like Theseus likes a smart girl, always
telling him to dress warmly and eat plenty of fiber.
She was one of those people who are never in doubt.
Had he sharpened his sword, tied his sandals?
Without her, of course, he would have never escaped
the labyrinth. Why hadn’t he thought of that trick
with the ball of yarn? But as he looked down
at her sleeping form, this woman who was already
carrying his child, maybe he thought of their
future together, how she would correctly foretell
the mystery or banality behind each locked door.
So probably he shook his head and said, Give me
a dumb girl any day, and crept back to his ship
and sailed away. Of course Ariadne was revenged.
She would have told him to change the sails,
to take down the black ones, put up the white.
She would have reminded him that his father,
the king of Athens, was waiting on a high cliff
scanning the Aegean for Theseus’s returning ship,
white for victory, black for defeat. She would
have said how his father would see the black sails,
how the grief for the supposed death of his one son
would destroy him. But Theseus and his men had
brought out the wine and were cruising a calm sea
in a small boat filled to the brim with ex-virgins.
Who could have blamed him? Until he heard the distant
scream and his head shot up to see the black sails
and he knew. The girls disappeared, the ship grew
quiet except for the lap-lap of the water. Staring
toward the spot where his father had tumbled
headfirst into the Aegean, Theseus understood
he would always be a stupid man with a thick stick,
scratching his forehead long after the big event.
But think, does he change his mind, turn back
the ship, hunt up Ariadne and beg her pardon?
Far better to be stupid by himself than smart
because she’d been tugging on his arm; better
to live in the eternal present with a boatload
of ex-virgins than in that dark land of consequences
promised by Ariadne, better to live like any one of us,
thinking to outwit the darkness, but knowing
it will catch us, that we will be surprised like
the Minotaur on his couch when the door slams back
and the hired gun of our personal destruction bursts
upon us, upsetting the good times and scaring the girls.
Better to be ignorant, to go into the future as into
a long tunnel, without ball of yarn or clear direction,
to tiptoe forward like any fool or saint or hero,
jumpy, full of second thoughts, and bravely unprepared.
”
”
Stephen Dobyns (Velocities: New and Selected Poems, 1966-1992)
“
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself, abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Go, wond'rous creature! mount where Science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!
”
”
Alexander Pope (Essay On Man)
“
Meantime, let me ask myself one question—Which is better?—To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort—no struggle;—but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure villa: to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester’s mistress; delirious with his love half my time—for he would—oh, yes, he would have loved me well for a while. He did love me—no one will ever love me so again. I shall never more know the sweet homage given to beauty, youth, and grace—for never to any one else shall I seem to possess these charms. He was fond and proud of me—it is what no man besides will ever be.—But where am I wandering, and what am I saying, and above all, feeling? Whether is it better, I ask, to be a slave in a fool’s paradise at Marseilles—fevered with delusive bliss one hour—suffocating with the bitterest tears of remorse and shame the next—or to be a village-schoolmistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England? Yes; I feel now that I was right when I adhered to principle and law, and scorned and crushed the insane promptings of a frenzied moment. God directed me to a correct choice: I thank His providence for the guidance!
”
”
Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition (Charlotte Brontë Classics))
“
Broca’s area is adjacent to the part of the motor-control strip dedicated to the jaws, lip, and tongue, and it was once thought that Broca’s area is involved in the production of language (though obviously not speech per se, because writing and signing are just as affected). But the area seems to be implicated in grammatical processing in general. A defect in grammar will be most obvious in the output, because any slip will lead to a sentence that is conspicuously defective. Comprehension, on the other hand, can often exploit the redundancy in speech to come up with sensible interpretations with little in the way of actual parsing. For example, one can understand The dog bit the man or The apple that the boy is eating is red just by knowing that dogs bite men, boys eat apples, and apples are red. Even The car pushes the truck can be guessed at because the cause is mentioned before the effect. For a century, Broca’s aphasics fooled neurologists by using shortcuts. Their trickery was finally unmasked when psycholinguists asked them to act out sentences that could be understood only by their syntax, like The car is pushed by the truck or The girl whom the boy is pushing is tall. The patients gave the correct interpretation half the time and its opposite half the time—a mental coin flip.
”
”
Steven Pinker (The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language)
“
One day, Methodist circuit rider Jesse Lee downtime self accosted by two lawyers:
"You are a preacher, sir?"
"Yes, I generally pass for one," replied Lee.
"You preach very often, I suppose?"
"Generally every day; frequently twice a day, or more."
"How do you find time to study, when you preach so often?"
"I study when writing," said Lee. "And read when resting," he added, maintaining a smile, though he could see now where they were heading.
The first lawyer feigned incredulity. "But do you not write your sermons?"
"No, not very often, at least."
"Do you not often make mistakes preaching extemporaneously?" the second lawyer queried.
Lee nodded. "I do, sometimes."
"Well, do you correct them?"
"That depends on the character of the mistake. I was preaching the other day, and I went to quote the text, 'All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,' and by mistake I said, 'All lawyers shall have their part--'"
The first lawyer interrupted him. "What did you do with that? Did you correct it?"
"Oh, no, it was so nearly true I didn't bother."
"Humph!" said one of the lawyers looking at the other, "I don't know whether you are more a knave than a fool!"
Neither," replied Lee smiling, and looking at the one on his right and the one on his left, "I'd say I was just between the two.
”
”
Peter Marshall (From Sea to Shining Sea: God's Plan for America Unfolds)
“
Specifically, the awareness that I claim is demonstrably non-computational is our understanding of the properties of natural numbers 0,1,2,3,4,....(One might even say that our concept of a natural number is, in a sense, a form of non-geometric 'visualization'.) We shall see in 2.5, by a readily accessible form of Godel's theorem (cf. response to query Q16), that this understanding is something that cannot be simulated computationally. From time to time one hears that some computer system has been 'trained' so as to 'understand' the concept of natural numbers. However, this cannot be true, as we shall see. It is our awareness of what a 'number' can actually mean that enables us to latch on to the correct concept. When we have this correct concept, we can-at least in principle-provide the correct answers to families of questions about numbers that are put to us, when no finite set of rules can do this. With only rules and no direct awareness, a computer-controlled robot (like Deep Thought) would be necessarily limited in ways in which we are not limited ourselves-although if we give the robot clever enough rules for its behaviour it may perform prodigious feats, some of which lie far beyond unaided human capabilities in specific narrowly enough defined areas, and it might be able to fool us, for some while, into thinking that it also possesses awareness.
”
”
Roger Penrose (Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness)
“
Secret Door"
Fools on parade cavort and carry on
For waiting eyes
That you would rather be beside than in front of
But she's never been the kind to be hollowed by the stares
She swam out of tonight's phantasm
Grabbed my hand and made it very clear
There's absolutely nothing for us here
It's a magnolia celebration
To be attempted on a Wednesday night
It's better than to get a reputation
As a miserable little tyke
At least that's the conclusion
She came to in this overture
The secret door swings behind us
She's saying nothing
She's just giggling along
Her arms were folded most indignant
Not looking like she was soon to leave
I had to squint in order to believe
And then like a butler pushing on a bookshelf
I'm unveiling the unexpected
I, who was earlier reluctant, was suddenly embarrassed and corrected
How could such a creature
Survive in such a habitat
The secret door swings behind us
She's saying nothing
She's just giggling along
And even if they were to find us
I wouldn't notice, I'm completely occupied
At all the fools on parade
Cavort and carry on for waiting eyes
That you would rather be beside than in front of
But she's never been the kind
To be hollowed by the stares
Fools on parade
Frolic and fuck about to make her gaze
Turn to a scribble on a page by a picture
That holds her options
But you're daft to think she'd care
Fools on parade [3x]
Conduct a sing-along
”
”
Arctic Monkey's
“
On the eve of my move to New York, my parents sat me down to talk. “Your mother and I understand that we have a certain responsibility to prepare you for life at a coed institution,” said my father. “Have you ever heard of oxytocin?” I shook my head. “It’s the thing that’s going to make you crazy,” my mother said, swirling the ice in her glass. “You’ll lose all the good sense I’ve worked so hard to build up in you since the day you were born.” She was kidding. “Oxytocin is a hormone released during copulation,” my father went on, staring at the blank wall behind me. “Orgasm,” my mother whispered. “Biologically, oxytocin serves a purpose,” my father said. “That warm fuzzy feeling.” “It’s what bonds a couple together. Without it, the human species would have gone extinct a long time ago. Women experience its effects more powerfully than men do. It’s good to be aware of that.” “For when you’re thrown out with yesterday’s trash,” my mother said. “Men are dogs. Even professors, so don’t be fooled.” “Men don’t attach as easily. They’re more rational,” my father corrected her. After a long pause, he said, “We just want you to be careful.” “He means use a rubber.” “And take these.” My father gave me a small, pink, shell-shaped compact of birth control pills. “Gross,” was all I could say. “And your father has cancer,” my mother said. I said nothing. “Prostate isn’t like breast,” my father said, turning away. “They do surgery, and you move on.” “The man always dies first,” my mother whispered.
”
”
Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation)
“
When he was gone the men on the bench began to laugh. One of them rose to better see the map.
Es un fantasma, he said.
Fantasma?
Sí, sí. Claro.
Cómo?
Cómo? Porque el viejo está loco es como.
Loco?
Billy stood looking at the map. No es correcto? he said.
The man threw up his hands. He said that what they beheld was but a decoration. He said that anyway it was not so much a question of a correct map but of any map at all. He said that in that country were fires and earthquakes and floods and that one needed to know the country itself and not simply the landmarks therein. Besides, he said, when had that old man last journeyed to those mountains? Or journeyed anywhere at all? His map was after all not really so much a map as a picture of a voyage. And what voyage was that? And when?
Un dibujo de un viaje, he said. Un viaje pasado, un viaje antigun.
He threw up one hand in dismissal. As if no more could be said. Billy looked at the other three men on the bench. They watched with a certain brightness of eye so that he wondered if he were being made a fool of. But the one seated at the right leaned forward and tapped the ash from his cigarette and addressed the man standing and said that as far as that went there were certainly other dangers to a journey than losing one's way. He said that plans were one thing and journeys another. He said it was a mistake to discount the good will inherent in the old man's desire to guide them for it too must be taken into account and would in itself lend strength and resolution to them in their journey.
The man who was standing weighed these words and then erased them in the air before him with a slow fanning motion of his forefinger. He said that the jovenes could hardly be expected to apportion credence in the matter of the map. He said that in any case a bad map was worse than no map at all for it engendered in the traveler a false confidence and might easily cause him to set aside those instincts which would otherwise guide him if he would but place himself in their care. He said that to follow a false map was to invite disaster. He gestured at the sketching in the dirt. As if to invite them to behold its futility. The second man on the bench nodded his agreement in this and said that the map in question was a folly and that the dogs in the street would piss upon it. But man on the right only smiled and said that for that matter the dogs would piss upon their graves as well and how was this an argument?
The man standing said that what argued for one case argued for all and that in any event our graves make no claims outside of their own simple coordinates and no advice as to how to arrive there but only the assurance that arrive we shall. It may even be that those who lie in desecrated graves-by dogs of whatever manner-could have words of a more cautionary nature and better suited to the realities of the world. At this the man at the left who'd so far not spoke at all rose laughing and gestured for the two boys to follow and they went with him out of the square and into the street leaving the disputants to their rustic parkbench tertulia.
”
”
Cormac McCarthy (The Crossing (The Border Trilogy, #2))
“
I hope Lily told you how happy I was by the offer to marry your commander."
"She mentioned it," Ranulf grimaced.
"Who knows? Maybe Rolande and I will meet and decide to stay together, forgoing the annulment."
Ranulf rocked back on his feet, picking up the basin, and stood up, causing water to slosh on to the floor from the abrupt movement. She sounded so damn happy. He plopped the water bowl back on its table. And why shouldn't she be? "You will like my commander. He is as handsome as Lillabet is beautiful."
Pain flashed in Bronwyn's eyes, turning them dark, almost black. If Ranulf's aim had been to hurt,he had struck true, resulting in a desire to inflict similar anguish. "As long as he doesn't lie to me and make me out the fool, I will be content."
"I suspect he won't if you don't lie to him first."
Bronwyn pushed herself out of the chair as a frisson of anger shot up her spine. "Maybe I won't if he doesn't order me away from my home without the courage to look me in the eye when he does so."
"I never pretended to be someone else."
"In that you are correct, my lord.You made it very clear from the beginning that you were a hateful man," she seethed.
"Didn't seem to bother you when you used your female wiles to entice me to your bed," Ranulf hissed back.
Bronwyn marched over to the door and swung it wide open. "I wonder just how my sister will deal with your barbarism. She is sweet,beautiful, and innocent,but she also knows nothing about running a castle.So preprare yourself,my lord.In a few months you will have a rundown estate and no commander either,for after I use my feminine wiles on him, I doubt we will be staying here at Hunswick.
”
”
Michele Sinclair (The Christmas Knight)
“
Pagans were not impressed by the torture of Christians merely because it showed that they honestly held their opinion; they knew that millions of people honestly held all sorts of opinions. The point of such extreme martyrdom is much more subtle. It is that it gives an appearance of a man having something quite specially strong to back him up, of his drawing upon some power. And this can only be proved when all his physical contentment is destroyed; when all the current of his bodily being is reversed and turned to pain. If a man is seen to be roaring with laughter all the time that he is skinned alive, it would not be unreasonable to deduce that somewhere in the recesses of his mind he had thought of a rather good joke. Similarly, if men smiled and sang (as they did) while they were being boiled or torn in pieces, the spectators felt the presence of something more than mere mental honesty: they felt the presence of some new and unintelligible kind of pleasure, which, presumably, came from somewhere. It might be a strength of madness, or a lying spirit from Hell; but it was something quite positive and extraordinary; as positive as brandy and as extraordinary as conjuring. The Pagan said to himself: "If Christianity makes a man happy while his legs are being eaten by a lion, might it not make me happy while my legs are still attached to me and walking down the street?" The Secularists laboriously explain that martyrdoms do not prove a faith to be true, as if anybody was ever such a fool as to suppose that they did. What they did prove, or, rather, strongly suggest, was that something had entered human psychology which was stronger than strong pain. If a young girl, scourged and bleeding to death, saw nothing but a crown descending on her from God, the first mental step was not that her philosophy was correct, but that she was certainly feeding on something.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton (All Things Considered)
“
He and his mama run swamp tours back in the bayou.” Roo flicked ashes into the trampled weeds. “Tourists really like that kind of thing, don’t ask me why. He works construction jobs, too. Mows lawns, cuts trees, takes fishermen out in his boat. Stuff like that.”
“Quite a résumé.”
“And not bad to look at either.” Roo arched an eyebrow. “Or haven’t you noticed?”
“I don’t even know him.”
“You don’t have to know him to notice.”
Miranda hedged. “Well…sure. I guess he’s kind of cute.”
“Cute? Kind of? I’d say that’s the understatement of the century.”
“Does he have a girlfriend or something?” As Roo flicked her an inquisitive glance, she added quickly, “He keeps calling me Cher.”
Clearly amused, Roo shook her head. “It’s not a name, it’s a…” She thought a minute. “It’s like a nickname…like what you call somebody when you like them. Like ‘hey, love’ or ‘hey, honey’ or ‘hey, darlin’. It’s sort of a Cajun thing.”
Miranda felt like a total fool. No wonder Etienne had gotten that look on his face when she’d corrected him about her name.
“His dad’s side is Cajun,” Roo explained. “That’s where Etienne gets that great accent.”
Miranda’s curiosity was now bordering on fascination. She knew very little about Cajuns--only the few facts Aunt Teeta had given her. Something about the original Acadians being expelled from Novia Scotia in the eighteenth century, and how they’d finally ended up settling all over south Louisiana. And how they’d come to be so well known for their hardy French pioneer stock, tight family bonds, strong faith, and the best food this side of heaven.
“Before?” Roo went on. “When he walked by? He was talking to you in French. Well…Cajun French, actually.”
“He was?” Miranda wanted to let it go, but the temptation was just too great. “What’d he say?”
“He said, ‘Let’s get to know each other.’”
A hot flush crept up Miranda’s cheeks. It was the last thing she’d expected to hear, and she was totally flustered. Maybe Roo was making it up, just poking fun at her--after all, she didn’t quite know what to make of Roo.
“Oh,” was the only response Miranda could think of.
”
”
Richie Tankersley Cusick (Walk of the Spirits (Walk, #1))
“
This, plus the inherent drive of the religious reformations, made them work towards the disenchantment of the world, and the abolition of society based on hierarchical equilibrium, whether that of élite and mass, or that we find reflected in the Carnival, and the “world turned upside down”. Indeed, the hostility to Carnival and such-like remains of popular culture is one of the evident points in common between religious and secular re-orderings. In the perspective of élites of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the world upside down of Carnival was neither a subject of amusement, nor a salutary correction for élite pride, nor an “air-hole” (safety valve), nor a recognition of the depth and many-sidedness of human life. It was simply an image of, and an invitation to sin. Starting with Brant’s Ship of Fools, a stream of writing, painting (Bosch, Breughel), illustrations begin to moralize this theme of reversal. It is in the end no laughing matter. Indeed, the world
”
”
Charles Margrave Taylor (A Secular Age)
“
I do not agree with Kurda's views on the righting ways of vampires — he is a pacifist, which runs contrary to our nature — but he is correct when he says that sometimes it is better not to fight. When a situation is hopeless, and there is nothing at stake, only a fool battles on.
”
”
Darren Shan (Vampire Mountain (Cirque Du Freak, #4))
“
We didn’t believe when we first heard because you know how church folk can gossip. Like the time we all thought First John, our head usher, was messing around on his wife because Betty, the pastor’s secretary, caught him cozying up at brunch with another woman. A young, fashionable woman at that, one who switched her hips when she walked even though she had no business switching anything in front of a man married forty years. You could forgive a man for stepping out on his wife once, but to romance that young woman over buttered croissants at a sidewalk café? Now, that was a whole other thing. But before we could correct First John, he showed up at Upper Room Chapel that Sunday with his wife and the young, hip-switching woman—a great-niece visiting from Fort Worth—and that was that. When we first heard, we thought it might be that type of secret, although, we have to admit, it had felt different. Tasted different too. All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we’d taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season. But we didn’t. We shared this sour secret, a secret that began the spring Nadia Turner got knocked up by the pastor’s son and went to the abortion clinic downtown to take care of it. She was seventeen then. She lived with her father, a Marine, and without her mother, who had killed herself six months earlier. Since then, the girl had earned a wild reputation—she was young and scared and trying to hide her scared in her prettiness. And she was pretty, beautiful even, with amber skin, silky long hair, and eyes swirled brown and gray and gold. Like most girls, she’d already learned that pretty exposes you and pretty hides you and like most girls, she hadn’t yet learned how to navigate the difference. So we heard all about her sojourns across the border to dance clubs in Tijuana, the water bottle she carried around Oceanside High filled with vodka, the Saturdays she spent on base playing pool with Marines, nights that ended with her heels pressed against some man’s foggy window. Just tales, maybe, except for one we now know is true: she spent her senior year of high school rolling around in bed with Luke Sheppard and come springtime, his baby was growing inside her. — LUKE SHEPPARD WAITED TABLES at Fat Charlie’s Seafood Shack, a restaurant off the pier known for its fresh food, live music, and family-friendly atmosphere. At least that’s what the ad in the San Diego Union-Tribune said, if you were fool enough to believe it. If you’d been around Oceanside long enough, you’d know that the promised fresh food was day-old fish and chips stewing under heat lamps, and the live music, when delivered, usually consisted of ragtag teenagers in ripped jeans with safety pins poking through their lips.
”
”
Brit Bennett (The Mothers)
“
I like to see a man standing at the foot of a skyscraper,' he said. 'It makes him no bigger than an ant - isn't that the correct bromide for the occasion? The God-damn fools! It's man who made it - the whole incredible mass of stone and steel. It doesn't dwarf him, it makes him greater than the structure. It reveals his true dimensions to the world. What we love about these buildings, Dominique, is the creative faculty, the heroic in man.
”
”
Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
“
There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a diaspora of their own. They are the lordly ones! They come in all colours. They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or atheists. They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or pacifists, rich or poor. They may be patriots, but they are never chauvinists. They share with each other, across all the nations, common values of humour and understanding. When you are among them you know you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically. They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean. They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion or political correctness. They are exiles in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they only knew it. It is the nation of nowhere, and I have come to think that its natural capital is Trieste.
”
”
Jan Morris (Trieste And The Meaning Of Nowhere)
“
Badgerlock, I rather think …"
"Prince FitzChivalry," I corrected him. I looked him up and down. "And do not make that mistake again."
"Prince FitzChivalry," he accepted the correction. He opened his mouth and then shut it again.
I turned away from him, holding his horse’s reins and Thick’s. "That wasn’t the mistake," I said without looking back. "I meant your trying to think.
”
”
Robin Hobb (Fool's Quest (The Fitz and the Fool, #2))
“
The abuse of the printing press is due to the scientific method and the expressionist aesthetic.
To the former because it allows any mediocre person to write a correct and useless monograph, and to the latter because it legitimizes the effusions of any fool.
”
”
Nicolás Gómez Dávila
“
Old and New (The Sonnet)
Old is not necessarily gold,
New is not necessarily cool.
Stereotypes without scrutiny,
Sustain only a society of fools.
Answer to one stereotype is not another,
Answer to one assumption is not another.
To make assumption is not wrong but,
To assume it as truth supreme is rhubarb.
Perception is all about assumption,
Our brain hasn't evolved to observe reality.
Biases prevent the observation of biases, unless,
You are hellbent to expand across comfort and luxury.
Stereotypes are archetypes of self-preservation.
Look outside the self and you'll find assimilation.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Find A Cause Outside Yourself: Sermon of Sustainability)
“
So you’ve lost your best suspect,’ said Cadfael thoughtfully. ‘The only one I had. And not sorry, so far as the fool himself is concerned, that he should turn out to be blameless. Well, short of murder, at least,’ Hugh corrected himself. ‘But contenders were thin on the ground from the start. And what follows now?’ ‘What follows,’ said Cadfael, ‘is that I tell you what I’ve come to tell you, for with even Conan removed from the field it becomes more substantial even than I thought. And then, if you agree, we might drain Conan dry of everything he knows, to the last drop, before you turn him loose. I can’t be sure, even, that anyone has so much as mentioned to you the box that Elave brought home for the girl, by way of a dowry? From the old man, before he died in France?’ ‘Yes,’ said Hugh wonderingly, ‘it was mentioned. Jevan told me, by way of accounting for Conan’s wanting to get rid of Elave. He liked the daughter, did Conan, in a cool sort of way, but he began to like her much better when she had a dowry to bring with her. So says Jevan. But that’s all I know of it. Why? How does the box have any bearing on the murder?’ ‘I have been baffled from the start,’ said Cadfael, ‘by the absence of motive. Revenge, said everyone, pointing the finger at Elave, but when that was blown clear away by young Father Eadmer, what was left? Conan may have been eager to prevent Aldwin from
”
”
Ellis Peters (The Heretic's Apprentice (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #16))
“
It's defiant adoration. And that's the most potent kind. "It is relatively easy to meet God in moments of joy or bliss. In these situations we correctly count ourselves blessed by God," observes psychologist David Benner. "The challenge is to believe that this is also true - and to know God's presence - in the midst of doubt, depression, anxiety, conflict, or failure. But the God who is Immanuel is equally in those moments we would never choose as in those we would always gladly choose." "Hallowed be your name" is always most powerful in the most unlikely places. (p. 65)
”
”
Tyler Staton (Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer)
“
Kim Dokja x Hansooyoung PART 1
[I shall kill you, Yoo Joonghyuk.] ~ Kim Dokja pg 4110
46. ⸢(Looks like you still don't know how it works. The heroine loses her
consciousness, her hand falling away. And the male hero awakens! You
see, in all the movies I've seen so far…) pg 4112
47. These idiots, I even died so that you two could talk to each other, but this…'
She figured that she really needed to give these two men a harsh earful
when she arrived there. But, when she pushed past the bushes and stepped
forward, the ensuing spectacle freaked her out in a rather grand manner.
Kwa-aaang!! Bang!!!
Yoo Joonghyuk was mercilessly slamming his sword down on Kim Dokja,
currently sprawled out on the ground.
"Hey!! You crazy son of a bitch!!" pg 4125
48. There were plenty of things she wanted to ask, but she chose not to. Instead,
she poked Kim Dokja's cheek and spoke up. "Still, this guy looks like he
got completely fooled, doesn't he."
"Looks that way."
"How did it go?"
"He went crazy and attacked me."
Han Sooyoung smirked and lightly pinched Kim Dokja's cheek as if she
was proud of him. pg 4127
49. the events of her dying at Yoo Joonghyuk's sword, me fighting against him,
and then, passing out from his attack, and finally, sharing a conversation
with Yoo Sangah inside the Library…
Han Sooyoung approached the bed before I noticed it and pinched my
cheek.
"In any case, Kim Dokja. You can be really adorable sometimes." pg 4144
50. The moment Han Sooyoung's fist bumped into mine, she was completely
enveloped in bright light. As I watched her figure disappear, I became
aware once more that she had become my companion for real. pg 4165
51. ⸢And…⸥
My heart began powerfully pounding away.
⸢The woman that I used to love.⸥
pg 4189
52. Her emotionless eyes; the beauty spot just below one of them; and her lips
that always mocked me for fun, now arching up in a smooth line.
"Proceed with the execution pg 4191
53. "But, should you be doing something like that? She's originally your bride,
isn't she?"
"Correction. She was supposed to be one. The throne was usurped on the
first day of the wedding, however."
Oh, I see. So, it's that sort of development? I felt just a bit relieved now.
Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk as a couple?
hadn't allowed any dating at the workplace yet, so hell no. pg 4202
54. ⸢By the time you're reading this book, I…⸥
I steeled my heart and read the next line of the text.
⸢…I'd still be living a pretty good life, I guess. Hahah, were you scared?⸥
This idiot… pg 4212
55. The following words were eerily similar to a certain body of text that I was
familiar with.
⸢The you reading this story will definitely make it out of here alive.⸥
Han Sooyoung's afterwords came to an end there. For the longest time, I
couldn't tear my eyes away from the full-stop at the end of the sentencepg4216
56. "Looks like the
company's internal rules need to be changed somewhat…" pg 4234
57. She spoke in a fed-up tone of voice. And then, issued an order to me.
"Marry me, Ricardo Von Kaizenix." pg 4244
58. "I didn't want to extend her 50 years by even one minute if I could help
it." I was being serious here.
The moment I arrived in this world and realized that Han Sooyoung had to
spend 50 years here, I just couldn't escape from this one overwhelming
emotion.
Someone was sacrificed again because of me.
Han Sooyoung who had to endure the time frame of 50 years – could she
still maintain a normal, functioning mind?
Was she able to maintain the ego of the Han Sooyoung that I know of?pg4254
59. Her palm smacked me in the back of the head again.
God damn it, this punk…
"The third method, 'Romance'."
"And its contents are?"
"Marry Yuri di Aristel."
"And just what did you choose?"
"The third method?"
"And are we currently married?"
"Nope."
"And why the hell not?!" pg 4256
”
”
shing shong (OMNISCIENT READER'S VIEWPOINT (light novel vol2))
“
Many people often ask me, "Is it better to be single or married?", To which I answer, single if you do not find the right person and married if you do. They also ask, "Is it better to have a business or a job", to which I reply whatever makes you happier and feel fulfilled. They then ask why I have decided to become a writer, to which I reply that it was never a decision, and it was never mine either. It is more correct to say that I learned to accept myself. This doesn't mean I won't change. Any circumstance in life is the result of many decisions and it shouldn't trouble your mind. But quite often, what troubles you is not life itself but the judgement of others. Yet you look at their judgements rather than their lack of capacity to make proper judgements. I never listen to what fools say because they can only say foolishness. People create that which is rooted in their being and if their nature is of immense ignorance, their advice to you will be as useful as a rotten apple falling from a tree with no life. The fact that you shouldn't eat rotten apples should be as obvious as the fact that you shouldn't listen to fools.
”
”
Dan Desmarques
“
Are you sure?” she asked.
Soon thereafter she was clambering into the ever-intimidating sidesaddle and whispering, “Easy, there, donkey friend,” when Captain East appeared.
“Going for a ride, Miss Erstwhile.”
“Yes, and I wish you would come.”
He had agreed before Amelia walked her horse into view. Captain East flinched but couldn’t back out now.
Jane was determined to keep distant from the couple and have a little alone time with prince charming. Captain East didn’t make her heart patter, but he was beyond high school quarterback cute, and being fake-courted by him would make for an interesting vacation at the very least. Then, like a bumbling fool, Mr. Nobley kept letting his horse trot forward, separating Jane and Captain East, and leaving Amelia riding alone. Jane would correct it, and Mr. Nobley would mess it all up again.
She glared. And still he didn’t get it.
Then he was glaring, and she glared back the why-are-you-glaring-at-me glare, and his eyes were exasperated, and she was about to call him ridiculous, when he said, “Miss Erstwhile, you look flushed. Will you not rest for a moment? Do not trouble yourself, Captain East, you go on with Miss Heartwight and we will follow straightaway.”
When the other two were out of hearing range, Jane turned her glare into words. “What are you doing? I’m just fine.”
“Pardon, Miss Erstwhile, but I was trying to allow Captain East and Miss Heartwright a few moments alone. She confided in me about their troubled past, and I hoped time to talk would help ease the strain between them.”
“Okay,” Jane laughed, “so I’m a little slow.” She knew she didn’t sound the least bit Austen-y, but for some reason she just couldn’t make herself try to approximate the dead dialect around Mr. Nobley.
”
”
Shannon Hale (Austenland (Austenland, #1))
“
My point is this: most of us are bad passengers who treat the Lord as though He were a bad driver. The Bible makes clear that God is in the driver’s seat. This is what predestination is all about (Rom. 8:28–39). There is no question about God’s perfection nor about His ability. We are the question mark. Do we act as though some fool, or some careless person, is in the driver’s seat of the universe? Are we bad passengers who are trying to second-guess God, put on the brakes for Him, and to correct His every step? Are our prayers really insults? Do we pray as though God has to be corrected, or nagged into doing the right thing? Or do we pray with confidence to the perfect Lord, knowing that He delights in our trust and welcomes our trusting prayer?
”
”
Rousas John Rushdoony (A Word in Season Vol. 7)
“
A fool despises his father’s instruction,
But he who receives correction is prudent.
”
”
Anonymous
“
He was no doubt correct. “Greed is all-consuming,” I remarked. He laughed. “You poor idiot. The day of the gentleman is over. Only those with money will matter, only those who can pay will command respect and attention. You are puffed with pride because of your so-called honor, but your honor will disappear. Wealth will become honor, and I will have all of it.” His smile widened. “You are not answering, Captain? What is the matter?” My voice went cold and hard. “I have no wish to waste time lecturing you. You are a fool, and soon you will learn how much of a fool.
”
”
Ashley Gardner (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Volume Two (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, #4-6))
“
In value investing, you must grasp the fact that a security will probably go down further after you buy it. Trying to time the market is a fool’s errand. Very few have been able to time the market consistently over the long-term. As an investor, you can look very silly for a long period of time before ultimately being proven correct.
”
”
J. Lukas Neely (Value Investing: A Value Investor's Journey Through the Unknown...)
“
One still unused experiment from this time was an exploration of backward vocals. A phrase written out backwards letter for letter and then read out will not sound correct when reversed, but a spoken phrase recorded and played backwards can be learnt and recited. This gives a very odd effect when it is in turn played backwards. ‘Neeagadelouff’ was one I remember: it should come out as ‘fooled again’.
”
”
Nick Mason (Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd)
“
I became a slightly daft traveler, obsessed with beekeeping and professing to know all there was to know on the topic. I started arguments so others would correct me and speak of beekeepers they had known.
”
”
Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man Trilogy 3-Book Bundle: Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's Fate)
“
Is this a council of morons?” said Molech. “The Seed of Eve, the Seed of Abraham, is coming up our holy mountain. And I am listening to fools quibbling over petty details of insignificance! Don’t just sit there! Say something, Belial.” Belial finally spoke up. “The mole god is correct. The Nazarene has been deliberately understated in order to fool us.” Molech felt smugly vindicated, though simultaneously insulted by the derogatory mole reference. But it was classic Belial. “I have sent some spirits to spy on Jesus. If they have an army of the heavenly host approaching, they will alert us. In the meantime, we must arm ourselves and prepare for battle.
”
”
Brian Godawa (Jesus Triumphant (Chronicles of the Nephilim, #8))
“
Nikos stared out across the bleached sand, the scattered cacti and rock. “Walk with me a while, Bartolomeo.” We walked together across the hot sand, an arm’s length apart. I’d already lost my orientation, and when I looked around, I found I could not locate the entrance I’d used; I was struck by the irrational fear that I might never be able to find my way out of there. Or that Nikos would murder me. My body could remain undiscovered for decades. “We’ve been friends a lot of years, Bartolomeo.” “Were friends,” I corrected him. “No more?” “I don’t think so, Nikos.” He stopped, turned, and looked at me, his expression steady. If he’d been drinking recently, I couldn’t tell. Everything about him seemed sober and firm. “We’ve both made mistakes. Out of fear, or mistrust. Or perhaps even simple misunderstanding. Whatever the reasons. But is the damage to our friendship irreparable?” I’d thought so, but suddenly I was unsure. Watching him, listening to him, I was unable to detect any dissembling. He seemed sincere. Nikos could be deceptive and manipulative, but I always thought I could see through him. I’d missed it before, although looking back on it, I realized the signs had been there—I just hadn’t recognized them; maybe because I hadn’t wanted to. Now, though, I saw nothing but a sincere effort at reconciliation. “I don’t know,” I finally said. “Honest
”
”
Richard Paul Russo (Ship of Fools)
“
When I read and watch Donald Trump shrug off or Twitter away that global warming is a hoax, his brushoffs don’t have the fire and passion of other things he off-handedly rejects. It’s a good sign recognizable to anyone loving Geminis in his or her life. I have a dear elder brother who’s an intellectually vibrant Gemini. I’ve also delved deep into the romantic and psychological depths with a lover born under the sign of “The Twins.” Thus from long and first-hand experience I contend that I can correctly sense the moment a Gemini’s stance on something is going void of course. There’s a little less feistiness. A tone of indifference grows. I can detect the subtle disengagement growing in Trump’s voice. If I’m not being fooled that there isn’t a new descent into deeper disinterest, the change in tone foreshadows a Gemini minded man or woman is about to shift gears
”
”
John Hogue (Trump for President: Astrological Predictions)
“
1 My son, forget not thou my Law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
2 For they shall increase the length of thy days and the years of life, and thy
prosperity.
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them on thy neck, and write them
upon the table of thine heart.
4 So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own wisdom.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy ways.
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: but fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
8 So health shall be unto thy navel, and marrow unto thy bones.
9 Honor the Lord with thy riches, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.
10 So shall thy barns be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall burst with
new wine.
11 My son, refuse not the chastening of the Lord, neither be grieved with his
correction.
12 For the Lord correcteth him, whom he loveth, even as the father doeth the
child in whom he delighteth.
13 Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth
understanding.
14 For the merchandise thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and the
gain thereof is better than gold.
15 It is more precious than pearls: and all things that thou canst desire, are not to
be compared unto her.
16 Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasure, and all her paths prosperity.
18 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her, and blessed is he that
retaineth her.
19 The Lord by wisdom hath laid the foundation of the earth, and hath
established the heavens through understanding.
20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the
dew.
21 My son, let not these things depart from thine eyes, but observe wisdom, and
counsel.
22 So they shall be life to thy soul, and grace unto thy neck.
23 Then shalt thou walk safely by thy way: and thy foot shall not stumble.
24 If thou sleepest, thou shalt not be afraid, and when thou sleepest, thy sleep
shall be sweet.
25 Thou shalt not fear for any sudden fear, neither for the destruction of the
wicked, when it cometh.
26 For the Lord shall be for thine assurance, and shall preserve thy foot from
taking.
27 Withhold not the good from the owners thereof, though there be power in thine
hand to do it.
28 Say not unto thy neighbor, Go and come again, and tomorrow will I give thee,
if thou now have it.
29 Intend none hurt against thy neighbor, seeing he doeth dwell without fear by
thee.
30 Strive not with a man causeless, when he hath done thee no harm.
31 Be not envious for the wicked man, neither choose any of his ways.
32 For the froward is abomination unto the Lord: but his secret is with the
righteous.
33 The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the
habitation of the righteous.
34 With the scornful he scorneth, but he giveth grace unto the humble.
35 The wise shall inherit glory: but fools dishonor, though they be exalted.
”
”
Proverbs
“
Know what you know. Most people oversimplify Occam’s razor to mean the simplest answer is usually correct. But the real meaning, what the Franciscan friar William of Ockham really wanted to emphasize, is that you shouldn’t complicate, that you shouldn’t “stack” a theory if a simpler explanation was at the ready. Pare it down. Prune the excess. Andrew
”
”
Harlan Coben (Fool Me Once)
“
Seeing her smile—at him, at the horses, at the day—Hazlit realized how closely confined she’d kept herself with him thus far. Her smiles had been merely pretty, her courtesy ruthlessly correct, her conversation guarded—except for that kiss, of course. The kiss he’d nipped in the bud because he wasn’t a complete fool. “Is
”
”
Grace Burrowes (Lady Maggie's Secret Scandal (The Duke's Daughters, #2; Windham, #5))