Word of the Day: Immemorial

Word of the Day

Immemorial:

1. Long past, beyond the limit of memory, tradition or recorded history. Time immemorial ~ old

"This is the philosophy which has characterized from time immemorial the creeds of primitive tribes."

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Franklin, Benjamin: A Letter To A Friend in London

Tell our good friend, Dr. Prince, not to be in any pains for us, (because I remember he had his doubts) we are all firm and united. As I know he is a great calculator I will give him some data to work upon: ministry [England's colonial ministry] have made a campaign here, which has cost two millions, they have gained a mile of ground; they have lost half of it back again, they have lost fifteen hundred men, and killed one hundred and fifty Yankees. In the meantime we have had between sixty and seventy thousand children born. Ask him how long it will take for England to conquer America? - Benjamin Franklin, 1774

Warren Buffet: On Protecting Reputation, Ethics and Cleaning up Spills Promptly

The priority is that all of us continue to zealously guard Berkshire's reputation. We can't be perfect but we can try to be. As i've said in these memos for more than 25 years: "We can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation." We must continue to measure every act against not only what is legal but also what we would be happy to have written about on the front page of a national newspaper in an article written by an unfriendly but intelligent reporter. Sometimes your associates will say "Everybody else is doing it." It is totally unacceptable when evaluating a moral decision. Whenever somebody offers that phrase as a rationale, in effect they are saying that they can't come up with a *good* reason. If anyone gives this explanation, tell them to try using it with a reporter or a judge and see how far it gets them. If you see anything whose propriety or legality causes you...

Mises, Ludwig Von: On Inaction

“The vigorous man industriously striving for the improvement of his condition acts neither more nor less than the lethargic man who sluggishly takes things as they come. For to do nothing and to be idle are also action, they too determine the course of events. Wherever the conditions for human interference are present, man acts no matter whether he interferes or refrains from interfering. He who endures what he could change acts no less than he who interferes in order to attain another result. A man who abstains from influencing the operation of physiological and instinctive factors which he could influence also acts. Action is not only doing but no less omitting to do what possibly could be done. We may say that action is the manifestation of a man’s will. But this would not add to our knowledge. For the term will means nothing else than man’s faculty to choose between different states of affairs, to prefer one, to set aside the other, an...

The Wealth of Actions

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