Excerpt 4.14
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Bush and co. think they are incapable of being wrong. Heck he can't even remember a single mistake he has made.
From the 4/13 press conference (only his 3rd press conference as president, by the way), care of the DNC:
Bush was asked during the conference what his "biggest mistake" was since the attacks of 9/11. Despite his deception over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, his declaration of "Mission Accomplished," and his urging to terrorists to "bring 'em on" against our troops, Bush could not think of a single mistake, stammering:
I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. John, I'm sure historians will say, gosh, he could have done it better this way or that way. You know, I just -- I'm sure something will pop into my head in the midst of this press conference... I don't want to sound like I made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- just put me under the spot here and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.
What a little mind.
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