Friday 30 March 2007

The Trousers of Decorum

“Every man has also his moral backside which he does not show without need and which he keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum.”
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[“Jeder Mensch hat auch seine moralische backside, die er nicht ohne Not zeigt, und die er so lange als möglich mit den Hosen des guten Anstandes zudeckt.”]
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G.C. Lichtenberg, Sudelbücher, (Frankfurt am Main und Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 1984), B.74 from Sudelbuch B (1768-1771), p.42.

7 comments:

dearieme said...

The Waverley Steps in Edinburgh used to be the enemy of the Kilt of Decorum.

Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

And many today wear the Wallace-and-Gromit Wrong Trousers of Indecorum...

...assuming they wear trousers at all.

Jeffery Hodges

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James Higham said...

You know, that's rather wonderful of dearieme. An important issue you've raised here, Deogolwulf.

Anonymous said...

Sir, apologies but I have appropriated, with acknowledgement, your words, or to be precise, Lichtenburg's words in order to add a little lustre to a post of mine over at my place.

Anonymous said...

It is odd that Lichtenberg used the English word "backside" instead of his own German word "der Hintere." If he wanted to be understood, he would have stayed with his perfectly adequate native word.

Deogolwulf said...

Dearieme, if you conjure up images of Scotsmen's hindquarters again, I shall have to ban you.

Prof. Hodges, a terrible pun, but I have it within my heart to forgive you.

Mr Higham, thanks.

Mr Duff, no apologies required.

Mr I. Castro, Lichtenberg was something of an Anglophile, and quite often used English words; still I too found it odd to see him use "backside".

Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Terrible pun, yes, but also terribly fun!

Jeffery Hodges

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