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| Ambrose Bierce - from Wikipedia |
While a man was trying with all his might to cross a fence,
a bull ran to his assistance, and taking him upon his horns, tossed him over.
Seeing the man walking away without making any remark, the bull said: “You are
quite welcome, I am sure. I did no more than my duty.”
“I take a different view of it, very naturally,” replied the
man, “and you may keep your polite acknowledgments of my gratitude until you
receive it. I did not require your services.”
“You don’t mean to say,” answered the bull, “that you did
not wish to cross that fence!”
“I mean to say,” was the rejoinder, “that I wished to cross
it by my method, solely to avoid crossing it by yours.”
Fabula docet that while the end is everything, the means is
something.
Ambrose
Bierce - Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874)
2 comments:
I have never forgotten being told the plot of "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge -
But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
Sackers - I haven't read "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", but I've just looked up the plot. I'll give it a go.
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