Friday, November 04, 2005

Waugh on being RIGID

"It is better to be narrow-­minded than to have no mind, to hold limited and rigid principles than to have none at all. That is the danger which faces so many people today‚ to have no considered opinions on any subject, to put upwith what is wasteful and harmful with the excuse that there 'is good in everything' ‚ which in most cases means an inability to distinguish between good and bad."
--Evelyn Waugh

This was forwarded someone who received it from a friend as part of an interesting tongue-in-cheek article: it was an elaboration on the definition of "rigid" in A MODERN SEMINARIANS' DICTIONARY, Published in Fidelity, September 1987, pp. 23-25. If I didn't fear copyright infringement claims, I'd post the whole thing here, as it's sad and humorous at the same time.

[Added Nov 6: after rereading the email that was forwarded to me, I see its source: Domenico Bettinelli featured this on Bettnet on Friday.]

I wish I knew where they got the Waugh quote. WAIT A MINUTE, this is the internet age. Let me google it . . . oh, it was an essay on tolerance published in 1932. I can't tell where it was published.

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