Thursday, January 27, 2005
This above all:
To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the
night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Shakespeare said that.
It is one of the fundamental properties of life on this rock that what is right is not always easy. Another is that even if it's not easy, it's still right. You can walk through the fire to a better day, or you can take the easy way and pay a dear price at the end of the road.
I said that.
You want a donut?
Ben said that.
No, thanks. I already had one.
I said that.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Alice said that.
The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it -- he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand -- so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm," had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backwards.
Lewis Carroll said that.
I'll say this:
Peace
night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Shakespeare said that.
It is one of the fundamental properties of life on this rock that what is right is not always easy. Another is that even if it's not easy, it's still right. You can walk through the fire to a better day, or you can take the easy way and pay a dear price at the end of the road.
I said that.
You want a donut?
Ben said that.
No, thanks. I already had one.
I said that.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Alice said that.
The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it -- he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand -- so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm," had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backwards.
Lewis Carroll said that.
I'll say this:
Peace
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