With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Probably the best-known “moralizing” poem in the world
after Rudyard Kipling's If— which might have
inspired it (and which I, personally, much prefer), Max Ehrmann's Desiderata
is actually famous mostly because of a recurring story that has it
found in Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore 1692
, whereas it
was actually written in the twenties. Regularly I come across people
quoting Desiderata as this really old anonymous poem
that was found in a church
, so I'm spreading the meme: this is an urban legend, the
author is actually named Max Ehrmann. I mention this poem now because
I thought of the following pastiche of the last paragraph:
With all its hacks, incompatibilities, and broken links,
it is still a beautiful web.
Be accessible. Strive to be conformant.
Anyway, while I'm at it debunking urban legends, I should also state (as I frequently have to) that the following ultra-famous quote,
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
is not by Voltaire, to whom it is almost always, wrongly,
attributed. So, to spread the correct meme: the above sentence is
actually by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, who wrote it in chapter VII of
The Friends of Voltaire (1906), published under the
pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre
. She used the phrase to describe
the philosopher's attitude toward Helvétius; certainly it is in the
spirit of Voltaire, but we must respect historical accuracy
and note that he did not pen it. However, to quote Avram Grumer on
rec.arts.sf.written, I may disagree with what you say, but I will
defend to the death your right to mis-attribute this quote to
Voltaire.