“Th' best thin' fer bein' sad, be t' learn somethin'.”
WHO? T.H. White in Th' Once and Future Kin'. Spoken by Merlin t' Wart.
AND? Th' rest o' th' quote:
“That be th' only thin' that no nay ne'er fails. Ye may grow barnacle-covered and tremblin' in yer anatomies, ye may lie awake at night listenin' t' th' disorder o' yer veins, ye may comely wench yer only love, ye may see th' world about ye devastated by evil lunatics, or be knowin' yer honour trampled in th' sewers o' baser minds. There be only one thin' fer it then—t' learn. Learn why th' world wags and what wags it. That be th' only thin' which th' mind can no nay ne'er exhaust, no nay ne'er alienate, no nay ne'er be tortured by, no nay ne'er fear or distrust, and no nay ne'er dream o' regrettin'. Learnin' be th' only thin' fer ye. Look what a lot o' things there be t' learn—pure science, th' only purity there be. Ye can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, aft ye have exhausted a million lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics—why, then ye can start t' make a cartwheel out o' th' appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learnin' t' begin t' learn t' beat yer adversary at fencin'. Aft that ye can start on mathematics, until it be time t' learn t' plough.”
posted at 8:18 pm
on Sep. 5, 2005
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