Erring – Page 8 – Everything

Erring

Error is boundless.
Nor hope nor doubt,
Though both be groundless,
Will average out.
—Cunningham

Oct 312018
 

We say of posthumously venerated figures that they waited generations or centuries to receive their due. It does not occur to us that they may have deserved their earlier neglect, and that it is we who have been taken in.

Oct 292018
 

To the vicious cant of equal result is opposed the vaguer, more plausible, and still more vicious cant of equal opportunity.

Oct 252018
 

To be great is to be misunderstood; but to affirm the consequent is rather more common.

Oct 032018
 

Every established bad practice relies on a vivid and convincing precedent; it has always worked, at least once.

Oct 022018
 

Being right twice a day makes a stopped clock useless: it can’t be depended on even for the wrong time.

Aug 092018
 

There are people who say a lot of true things, and people who say a lot of insightful things, but not the same people.

Aug 082018
 

Enthusiastic agreement is an infallible sign that you have not been understood.

Jul 172018
 

With each passing year I find the argument that “no one could possibly be that stupid” less persuasive.