Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
Interpretation
The past is distinct and often unrecognizable from the present, shaping our experiences and memories.
This quote by L.P. Hartley suggests that the past is so different from our current reality that it feels like a foreign place with its own customs and practices. It emphasizes the transformative nature of time and how our perspectives can shift, allowing us to see the past not merely as a timeline of events but as an entirely separate realm of existence that influences how we understand ourselves and our lives today.
In practice
In a reflective speech about personal growth and how childhood experiences shaped who I am today.
Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.
It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.
It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.
In the long run, the oppressor is also a victim. In the short run (and so far, human history has consisted only of short runs), the victims, themselves desperate and tainted with the culture that oppresses them, turn on other victims.
Since my house burned down I now own a better view of the rising moon.
Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault.
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