Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan
The outward habit by the inward man.
Facts are stubborn things.
Smollett. Trans, of Gil Bias. Bk. X. Ch. I. Elliot—Essay on Field Husbandry. P. 35.
"That was excellently observed," say I when I read a passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken.
Je connais quelqu'un qui a plus d'esprit que
Napoleon, que Voltaire, que tous les ministres
presents et future: c'est l'opinion.
I know where there is more wisdom than is
found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come—in public opinion.
Talleyrand—In the Chamber of Peers. (1821)
Quot homines, tot sententiæ; suus cuique mos.
So many men, so many opinions; everyone has his own fancy.
Matters of fact, as Mr. Budgell somewhere observes, are very stubborn things.
OPPORTUNITY
A thousand years a poor man watched
Before the gate of Paradise:
But while one little nap he snatched,
It oped and shut. Ah! was he wise?
There is an hour in each man s life appointed
To make his happiness, if then he seize it.
This could but have happened once,
And we missed it, lost it forever.
He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.
There is a nick in Fortune's restless wheel
For each man's good.
Chapman—Bussy d'Ambois.
Holding occasion by the hand,
Not over nice 'twit weed and flower,
Waiving what none can understand,
I take mine hour.
John Vance Cheney—This My Life.
Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find:
Occasion once past by, is bald behind.
Rem tibi quam nosces aptam dimittere noli;
Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva.
Let nothing pass which will advantage you; Hairy in front, Occasion's bald behind.</poem>
Observe the opportunity.
Seek not for fresher founts afar,
Just drop your bucket where you are;
And while the ship right onward leaps,
Uplift it from exhaustless deeps.
Parch not your life with dry despair;
The stream of hope flows everywhere—
So under every sky and star,
Just drop your bucket where you are!
"Oh, ship ahoy!" rang out the cry;
"Oh, give us water or we die!"
A voice came o'er the waters far,
"Just drop your bucket where you are."
And then they dipped and drank their fill
Of water fresh from mead and hill;
And then they knew they sailed upon
The broad mouth of the Amazon.
Der den Augenblick ergreift,
Das ist der rechte Mann.
Yet he who grasps the moment's gift,
He is the proper man.
Man's extremity is God's opportunity.
I beseech you not to blame me if I be desirous to strike while the iron is hot.
Rapiamus, amici,
Occasionem de die.
Let us seize, friends, our opportunity from the day as it passes.
The actual fact is that in this day Opportunity not only knocks at your door but is playing an anvil chorus on every man's door, and then lays for the owner around the corner with a club. The world is in sore need of men who can do things. Indeed, cases can easily be recalled by every one where Opportunity actually smashed in the door and collared her candidate and dragged him forth to success. These cases are exceptional, usually you have to meet Opportunity half-way. But the only place where you can get away from Opportunity is to lie down and die. Opportunity does not trouble dead men, or dead ones who flatter themselves that they are alive.
