a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
StJohn  ·  3492 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 17th spasmodic quotes from what you've been reading

    My father took what can only be described as a mystical view of double-entry book-keeping, as if some unexpected and particular virtue resided in it like a djinn in a bottle. The world was divided for him into two classes, the one consisting of those who were at home in this esoteric language of mathematics and the other of those who were not. It constituted a test in his mind. A man's character would be finally summarized and dismissed with the words: 'He doesn't understand Double Entry.'

— Osbert Sitwell, Tales My Father Taught Me (1963)