“One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner.”
“407. A small Leak will sink a great Ship.”
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1745) : Beware of little Expences, a small Leak will sink a great Ship.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
“I was floating in a peaceful sea, rescued by a sinking ship.”
January 1979.
Catch For Us The Foxes (2004)
“It is the only case on record of a man swimming toward a sinking ship.”
On former Texas Governor John Connally's switch from Democratic to the Republican party in his bid for the Presidential nomination. Quoted in the Washington Post, 18 January 1988.
“To say that God turns away from the evil is like saying that the sun hides himself from the blind.”
XIV. In what sense, though the Gods never change, they are said to be made angry and appeased.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Context: If any one thinks the doctrine of the unchangeableness of the Gods is reasonable and true, and then wonders how it is that they rejoice in the good and reject the bad, are angry with sinners and become propitious when appeased, the answer is as follows: God does not rejoice — for that which rejoices also grieves; nor is he angered — for to be angered is a passion; nor is he appeased by gifts — if he were, he would be conquered by pleasure.
It is impious to suppose that the divine is affected for good or ill by human things. The Gods are always good and always do good and never harm, being always in the same state and like themselves. The truth simply is that, when we are good, we are joined to the Gods by our likeness to live according to virtue we cling to the Gods, and when we become evil we make the Gods our enemies — not because they are angered against us, but because our sins prevent the light of the Gods from shining upon us, and put us in communion with spirits of punishment. And if by prayers and sacrifices we find forgiveness of sins, we do not appease or change the Gods, but by what we do and by our turning toward the divine we heal our own badness and so enjoy again the goodness of the Gods. To say that God turns away from the evil is like saying that the sun hides himself from the blind.
“I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.”
Haiku: This Other World (1998)
