James Geary | September 2008 issue
Doors. What are they but holes with hinges, lidded interstices? They are almost nothing, a frame around empty space, yet everything swings on them. They stand there indifferent, impenetrable, not caring whether we go out or come in. We hurry through them, never sure in doing so whether we have just accepted an invitation or ignored a warning, never even sure if we’re entering or exiting. “Fortune always leaves some door open in misfortune,” wrote the Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes, who authored Don Quixote. Some doors open so fast and so wide we mistake them for abysses; others shut so subtly and so slowly we never notice them closing.
James Geary is the author of The World in a Phrase and Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists. jamesgeary.com
Fortune always leaves some door open in misfortune
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