25 January. Fell in love, or imagined that I had, was at a party and lost my head. Bought a horse that I have no need of whatsoever. Rules. Never offer any price for a thing one does not need. On entering a ball, at once ask someone to dance and do a turn of the waltz or polka. This evening think over means of mending my affairs. Stay at home.
Leo Tolstoy, diaries, 1851
Eleven years before his marriage to Sofya Bers; in 1851 she was 7 years old
At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the
Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least
