Friday diversion with Thomas Hardy

We are expected to make judgments quickly even though we are warned not to judge a book by its cover and other such conventional thinking.  In Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy makes the following observation:

"Wisdom lies in moderating mere impressions,..."

We are impressionable creatures and much of the contemporary world conspires to exploit that.  Not all "impressions" are wrong or misleading, either.  However, Mr. Hardy suggests that if we are to live in wisdom, we should have the ways and means of subjecting our sensitive natures to some kind of thoughtful reflection.  We should not just react, but  pragmatically control our impulses.

Landscape with Sheep Herder from Wikimedia.org (Painting by Henry Brittan Willis, 1810-1884)