“acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.”
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Context: Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous
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Ambrose Bierce 204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914Related quotes
Source: Pierre or the Ambiguities
“Whatever is done well enough is done quickly enough.”
Sat celeriter fieri, quidquid fiat satis bene.
In Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, II., 25.
Cf. Shakespeare, Macbeth I. vii, "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly".
"On Going on a Journey"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to.”
“It is not enough that we have a guilty defendant. We must have an innocent system as well.”
Source: Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice (2006), p. 107
Foreword
My Life (1930)
Context: I know well enough, from my own experience, the historical ebb and flow. They are governed by their own laws. Mere impatience will not expedite their change. I have grown accustomed to viewing the historical perspective not from the stand point of my personal fate. To understand the causal sequence of events and to find somewhere in the sequence one's own place – that is the first duty of a revolutionary. And at the same time, it is the greatest personal satisfaction possible for a man who does not limit his tasks to the present day.
“Do something well, and that is quickly enough.”
Harto presto, si bien.
Maxim 57 (p. 32)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
“One has to know how to swim just well enough to avoid having to save anyone else.”
Enrique Vila-Matas (2011) Never Any End to Paris, Translated by Anne McLean. p. 45
The narrator quoting his mother.
““And you’ve never married.”
“I don’t know any women well enough to hate ’em that much.””
The Hour of Babel (p. 61)
Short fiction, The Bible Repairman and Other Stories (2011)