The Hero Hartmut

"O Cormac, grandson of Conn," said Carbery, "I desire to know how I shall behave among the wise and the foolish, among friends and strangers, among the old and the young, among the innocent and the wicked."

"Not hard to tell," said Cormac,
"Be not too wise, be not too foolish.
Be not too conceited, nor too diffident.
Be not too haughty, nor too humble.
Be not too talkative, nor too silent.
Be not too hard, nor too feeble.
If you be too wise, one will expect too much of you.
If you be foolish, you will be deceived.
If you be too conceited, you will be thought vexatious.
If you be too humble, you will be without honour.
If you be too talkative, you will not be heeded.
If you be too silent, you will not be regarded.
If you be too hard, you will be broken.
If you be too feeble, you will be crushed."

-Instructions of King Cormac (translated from Irish)

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A mosquito cried out in pain:
"A chemist has poisoned my brain!"
The cause of his sorrow
was para-dichloro-
diphenyl-trichloro-ethane

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Without courage, wisdom fails, and power corrupts.
Without wisdom, courage loses hope, and power is senseless.
Without power, courage is weak, and wisdom is useless.
That is why heroes possess all three...

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Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.


1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
3) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

-http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

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