How can we undertake to bring up the young? In old days
people were simpler and thought less, and so settled problems boldly. But we
think too much, we are eaten up by logic.
The more developed a man is,
the more he reflects and gives himself up to subtleties, the more undecided and
scrupulous he becomes, and the more timidity he shows in taking action. How
much courage and self-confidence it needs, when one comes to look into it
closely, to undertake to teach, to judge, to write a thick book.
Anton Chekhov – Home (short story published in 1887)
4 comments:
Who thinks too much? I see very little of that in daily life.
Paddington - that's because thinking isn't often the best way to get on in life.
This may have been written when confined to house by deep snows. Is reflection thinking, or the cerebral equivalent of the hamster's wheel?
Sackers - for me, the quality of reflection depends on the time of day. In the early morning it's quite good, but in the evening it's back to the the hamster's wheel.
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