Noted
You've got to read this.
I’ve been reading Futility Closet since a few months after it was founded in 2005. Its creator, Greg Ross, describes it as “a collection of entertaining curiosities in history, literature, language, art, philosophy, and mathematics, designed to help you waste time as enjoyably as possible.”
The posts are short, and invariably delightful (though I’ll admit I don’t understand chess well enough to get the occasional chess posts). I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone with a curious disposition.
What prompted this was a recent post headed Noted:
“A few precepts to repeat whenever you are in need of comfort,” by Gabriel Hanotaux, French minister of foreign affairs from 1894 to 1895:
Anything can happen.
Everything is forgotten.
Every difficulty can be overcome.
No one understands anything.
If everyone knew what everyone said about everyone, no one would speak to anyone.
“Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.”
(Via André Maurois’ The Art of Living, 1939.)
Now go spend a few hours browsing through the 12,000+ posts there, and thank me later.