Avarice, the spur of industry, is so obstinate a passion, and works its way through so many real dangers and difficulties, that it is not likely to be scared by an imaginary danger, which is so small that it scarcely admits of calculation.
—David Hume (1711–1776)
Again we mistook a little rocky islet seen through the “drisk,” with some taller bare trunks or stumps on it, for the steamer with its smoke-pipes, but as it had not changed its position after half an hour, we were undeceived. So much do the works of man resemble the works of nature. A moose might mistake a steamer for a floating isle, and not be scared till he heard its puffing or its whistle.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Alice: I put swimsuits in boxes six days a week.
George: Yeah. What about Sunday? Maybe then you put yourself in a swimsuit.
Alice: Oh, not me.
George: Why? You don’t look good in a swimsuit?
Alice: Sure I do. I can’t swim.
George: You’re kidding.
Alice: I never learned. I was even scared of the duck pond when I was a kid.
—Michael Wilson (1914–1978)