Posts from August 2016
“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
nikhedonia, noun: The pleasure and satisfaction derived from the anticipation of success. A harmless indulgence, and a prudent one, too, since success comes only to some but nikhedonia is freely available to all.
“Off to golf so early, darling? Hadn’t you better have your little nikhedonia session first? You know how badly you play when your gummata are troubling you.”
from The Superior Person’s Book of Words, by Peter Bowler
I have been in a great quandary over trusts. I do not know what attitude to take. I do not intend to play a demagogue, but on the other hand, I do intend to see that the rich man is held to the same accountability as the poor man. And when the rich man is rich enough to buy unscrupulous advice from very able lawyers, this is not always easy.
Theodore Roosevelt
in an August 15, 1899 letter to a friend