Friday, May 16, 2008

BETTER THAN OPTIMISM

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." -- Samuel Beckett
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heard Andrew Marr quote this on Jonathan Ross last night. I took it in the context that he was talking about politics addressing the important issues such as poverty and helplessness amonst our youth. I felt the quote to be so depressing. Where is hope if we only contemplate failure?

7:44 PM
Simon Barrow said...

Well, 'ol Sam never was a bag of laughs! ;) I kinda like it, because what it suggests is that the culture of "if at first you don't succeed, give up" is profoundly inadequate; and also that we are likely to go on failing in some respect or another - but that this shouldn't deter us either. Biblical hope has nothing to do with optimism, and much more to do with facing our limits, Bonhoeffer (rightly) suggested. The way of expressing this positively, I think is in Oscar Romero's amazing prayer. http://www.simonbarrow.net/reflect3.html

10:57 PM

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