“Cesar is not a philosophical man. His life has been one long flight
from reflection. At least he is clever enough not to expose the poverty
of his general ideas; he never permits the conversation to move toward
philosophical principles. Men of his type so dread all deliberation that
they glory in the practice of the instantaneous decision. They think
they are saving themselves from irresolution; in reality they are
sparing themselves the contemplation of all the consequences of their
acts. Moreover, in this way they can rejoice in the illusion of never
having made a mistake; for act follows so swiftly on act that it is
impossible to reconstruct the past and say that an alternative decision
would have been better. They can pretend that every act was forced on
them under emergency and that every decision was mothered by necessity.”
Thornton Wilder, "The Ides of March"
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