Alter

Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.

– Gerald Brenan, Thoughts in a Dry Season, 1978

An Unexpected End

A gentleman at the table of the  great Condé, having related several wonderful stories of a king of Persia, his Highness requested him to continue the recital of the life of so great a man; but the gentleman perceiving the servants had begun to clear the table during his narrative, in order to regain his lost time, replied, “This prince died suddenly.”

– The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 9, 1827

Error

The fool maintains an error with the assurance of a man who can never be mistaken: the sensible man defends a truth with the circumspection of a man who may be mistaken.

– De Bruix, Western New England, Vol. 1, 1910