Page 82 - Forbes - Asia (October 2019)
P. 82
THOUGHTS ON
HUBRIS
“And the devil did grin, “Zeal moves the megaloma-
for his darling sin is pride niac with a complete lack of
that apes humility.” appreciation for what he does
Samuel Taylor Coleridge not know.”
David Halberstam
“Conceit spoils the finest genius.”
Louisa May Alcott “He knows nothing, and he
thinks he knows everything.
That points clearly to a
“I’m the greatest golfer!
I just haven’t played yet.” political career.”
George Bernard Shaw
Muhammad Ali
“Arrogance is in everything
“Once, many, many years ago,
I thought I had made a wrong I do! It is in my gestures,
decision. Of course, it turned the harshness of my voice,
out I had been right all along. in the glow of my gaze, in
But I was wrong to have my sinewy, tormented face.”
thought that I was wrong.” Coco Chanel
John Foster Dulles
“Whoever undertakes to set
himself up as a judge of
“Some of the biggest cases
of mistaken identity are Truth and Knowledge is
among intellectuals who have shipwrecked by the laughter
trouble remembering that they of the gods.”
are not God.” Edmund Burke
Thomas Sowell
“I am incapable
of mediocrity.”
“It is the certainty that they Dirigible Dreams: September 1, 1931
possess the truth that makes Serge Gainsbourg
men cruel.” The U.S.S. Akron was a marvel, a 240m-long helium-
Anatole France powered dirigible that could travel 20,000km without “A fool’s mouth lashes out
with pride, but the lips of
refueling. The Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. and its
“Should man call himself master president, Paul W. Litchfield, built the Akron for the U.S. the wise protect them.”
and emperor of the world, of Navy—it cost some $84 million in current dollars—but Proverbs 14:3
which he has not power to
know the least part, much less it was easy to envision using similar aircraft to ferry both
to command the whole?” passengers and mail “with perfect safety and dispatch.”
Michel de Montaigne Sure, past airships had “been destroyed by . . . fire or FINAL THOUGHT
structural failure,” but by fall 1931, it appeared that both
“Hubris is one of the great problems had “been minimized to the disappearing
renewable resources.” point.” That titanic bravado was dashed in the waves of
P.J. O’Rourke the Atlantic Ocean less than two years later when a squall
off the New Jersey coast brought down the Akron, killing
“Nothing is more beautiful all but 3 members of its 76-person crew. The world’s
than to know all.” fascination with zeppelins would collapse four years
Athanasius Kircher later, when the Hindenburg—filled with hydrogen after
U.S. trade restrictions sapped Nazi Germany’s helium
“When the divine element in supply—concluded its 63rd flight in a famous inferno
them became weakened, and that destroyed the balloon and killed 36 people.
their human traits became pre- “It’s so much easier to
dominant, they ceased to be able suggest solutions when
to carry their prosperity with SOURCES: THE DEVIL’S THOUGHTS, BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE; LITTLE you don’t know too much
about the problem.”
moderation.” WOMEN, BY LOUISA MAY ALCOTT; APOLOGY FOR RAYMOND SEBOND, BY
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE; TIMAEUS, BY PLATO; THE COLDEST WINTER, BY DAVID —Malcolm Forbes
Plato HALBERSTAM; MAJOR BARBARA, BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW; ON EMPIRE,
LIBERTY AND REFORM, BY EDMUND BURKE.
80 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2019
