A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance", Essays: First Series, 1841
Cool. Now I know what to respond when Mrs. ArGee says, “I just don’t understand you!”
And then I’ll duck.
Why support a foolish consistency? Or for that matter, a foolish inconsistency?
Why support anything foolish?
Well, I’ve been known to ask a foolish question from time to time, anticipating the expected result. — But every once in a while, you ask a foolish question and get a clever answer.
Casting seeds on barren ground, as it were.
. . . Is that the sun up there, or the moon?
. . . . Why ask me? I’m not from around here.