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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)

5 comments:

Demetrius said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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

A K Haart said...

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.

James Higham said...

Boris would appreciate that.

A K Haart said...

James - yes I think he would.