Better to stumble on the right path than stride forward on the wrong one.
From Taking Everything into Account, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
Switch took the long way down the oak this morning, slipping twice on the wet bark, and reached the acorns before the gray squirrel who ran flat out along the fence rail in the other direction. I used to think speed was the whole of it. For years I measured a bird by how fast he crossed a field, and I said as much, and I was wrong in a way that took me a long time to see. Better to stumble on the right path than stride forward on the wrong one, I wrote, and then sat with it, because I am not always sure which one I am on until I have been on it a while. The fence rail is smooth and flat and goes nowhere near the acorns. The other squirrel is still out there somewhere, making excellent time.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- The problem with being intelligent is that you have all that intelligence to use against yourself.
- Wisdom is first the wisdom of the child, meeting life innocently, eagerly, without expectation.
- The old road has lots of twists and turns but few surprises.
- No matter where you look for it, the sun only rises in the east.
- A know-it-all doesn’t and doesn’t know that he doesn’t.
- We have learned so much about how to make a better world, but not learned enough.