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Thursday, 25 February 2016

Drawing profit from circumstances

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Indifferent and passionate, he gave himself rein and drew back constantly, impelled by conflicting instincts, yielding to all, and then obeying, in the end, his own shrewd man-about-town judgment, whose weather-vane logic consisted in following the wind and drawing profit from circumstances without taking the trouble to originate them.

Guy de Maupassant - Yvette (1884)
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5 comments:

  1. Demetrius25 February 2016 at 15:50

    Perhaps he fell off his bike in Westminster by the statue of Oliver Cromwell and had a Damascene Conversion. Incidentally, there is an International Church of Jesus on Damascus Road in Maastricht.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous26 February 2016 at 07:10

    Now let me see, both born into wealthy families, both well educated and with a talent for writing, good living and fine wine - and er the other thing. One died of the pox, the other will almost certainly die a lord if not an ex prime minister and probably not of the pox. Intriguing to see how the New Tory Party is shaping up

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  3. A K Haart26 February 2016 at 12:53

    Demetrius - he seems to be an EU sceptic anyway, but I'm sure he'd suppress that if his political calculations required it.

    Roger - I'm sure he'll avoid the pox but probably not the Lords one way or another.

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  4. James Higham26 February 2016 at 20:38

    Boris would appreciate that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A K Haart27 February 2016 at 16:37

    James - yes I think he would.

    ReplyDelete

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