Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 211

Some of the best and ablest of men are wanting in tact. They will neither make allowance for circumstances, nor adapt themselves to circumstances: they will insist on trying to drive their wedge the broad end foremost. They raise walls only to run their own heads against. They make such great preparations, and use such great precautions, that they defeat their own object,--like the Dutchman mentioned by Washington Irving, who, having to leap a ditch, went so far back to have a good run at it, that when he came up he was completely winded, and had to sit down on the wrong side to recover his breath.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 211 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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