Monday, 23 November 2020

Fly in the ointment


In old English there is a saying that goes:

"'Tis that dead fly in the ointment of the Apothecary."

We know it more as 'the fly in the ointment', which refers to a small glitch in an otherwise good plan.

Reading through Ecclesiastes 10, we note that this idiom has it's origins in the time of Solomon. I am struck by how ancient wisdom has been carried into our modern era and how we can still understand the concepts of people like Solomon.

"As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
    so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
The heart of the wise inclines to the right,
    but the heart of the fool to the left.
Even as fools walk along the road,
    they lack sense 
and show everyone how stupid they are." - Ecclesiastes 10:1-3

Some thoughts are timeless.

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, "And this too, shall pass away." - Abraham Lincoln

Living in Grace

D3LM3


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