Saturday, October 19, 2013

I saw the world...

I saw the world a great orchestra filled with angels whose instruments were of gold. And I saw the organ on the top of the axis round which all should turn, but nothing turned and nothing moved and the angels stirred not and all was as still as a stone, and I was myself also, like the rest, as still as a stone.
Then I saw some huge, cloud-like forms nearing, and behold! it was the Lord bringing two of his children by the hand.
"O Papa!" said one, "isn't it pretty?"
"Yes, my dear," said the Lord, "and if you drop a penny into the box the figures will work."
Then I saw that what I had taken for the keyboard of the organ was no keyboard but only a slit, and one of the little Lords dropped a plaque of metal into it. And then the angels played and the world turned round and the people began killing one another and the two little Lords clapped their hands and were delighted.

Honesty

Honesty consists not in never stealing but in knowing where to stop in stealing, and how to make good use of what one does steal. It is only great proprietors who can steal well and wisely. A good stealer, a good user of what he takes, is ipso facto a good inventor. Two men can invent after a fashion to one who knows how to make the best use of what has been done already.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Current Favourite Sentence

This article was amended on 16 October 2013 to correct the date for the invention of the cotton gin and remove a reference to Andy Warhol.