A proper commonplace. "Truth lies at the bottom of the well; we drink water from the surface in its place, especially when relying on the testimony of others to scoop it up." --'Augsburg patrician and polymath' Markus Welser, quoted in Anthony Grafton's The Footnote.
I wish I could buy that done in pokerwork.
Incidental note of surprise: The most amusing thing in The Footnote isn't the footnotes, although an expert could probably derive some fun from them. I prefer Anthony Grafton's sportive metaphors -- he describes Gibbon's Decline and Fall as a "great neoclassical country house and witty gazebos" -- and his catty way with parenthesis.
[The Footnote, by Anthony Grafton (Faber, 1997). Books not from 1997 soon, I promise.]
No comments:
Post a Comment