Another proud member of the irony-based community.
Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce, by the endless uncertainty in which they involve you, and by the cold reception which your pretended discoveries shall meet with, when communicated.—Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, § 1. (Nature is speaking.)
"Mysterious Jackson area lawyer's blog about history, literature, and whatever irks him." -- NMC
"Just a hypersensitive pantywaist probably of Gallic descent who still suffers nightmares over what Gaius Julius did to your people 2,000 years ago." -- Kingfish
And therefore, reader, I myself am the subject of my book; it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain.
-- Montaigne, Essays, "To the Reader.""I shall see myself, I shall read myself, I shall go into ecstacies, and I shall ask -- Is it possible that I have so much ésprit?"
-- Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols.... the torturer has become – like the pirate and slave trader before him – hostis humani generis, an enemy of all mankind.
-- Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, 630 F.2d 876, 890 (2d Cir. 1980)
uhhh.... A lot of the things with which I occupy my mind, at work or play, could come under this rubric.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I have experienced, after deeply reading about this or that, surfacing to share it with someone around me and discovering "the cold reception which [my] pretended discovered [were] met with, when communicated."
ReplyDeleteWhile I like that phrase, I'm thinking Hume could have done better than "pretended discoveries shall meet with..."
"the cold reception that your pretended discoveries shall meet, when communicated." There. That's better.
The no-endings-with-prepositions rule hadn't been invented yet.
ReplyDeleteIt's the lawyer's paradox: no one, NO ONE, is interested in your stupid case except the opposing counsel -- and you can't talk to HIM about it.
There are lawyers who WILL talk to opposing counsel, without respite, and I have two [internal] reactions, pretty much: "Ok, keep talking, fool, while I absorb your disclosures of what you are up to" OR "look, guy, are you thinking you are going to persuade me of the error of my ways? Save it for the judge." The ones who provoke the later reaction often seem almost angry I'm not admitting whatever point they are making. Sometimes I will express the second reaction aloud.
ReplyDeleteMost annoying are prosecutors who feel some sort of compulsion to try to get me to acknowledge that my client is repulsive. I resist the impulse to talk to them about dishonest cops.
Thanks for sharing this quote from Mr. Hume. This will be very helpful with the information he provided. Have a great rest of your weekend and an enjoyable 2020 for you all.
ReplyDeleteGreg Prosmushkin