Sydney Smith (1771–1845), a witty parson, writes the following in his Sketches of Moral Philosophy:
If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes upon a table, of different shapes—some circular, some triangular, some square, some oblong—and the persons acting these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly that we can say they were almost made for each other.
To which Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) contributes:
A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.
But to which I reflect:
If we look back, we find that the triangular person is to blame for the square person’s having to squeeze into the round hole. I resent having to change in order to find my place in life and (most likely uncomfortably) fit in.
Some thoughts on being square
Sydney Smith (1771–1845), a witty parson, writes the following in his Sketches of Moral Philosophy:
If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes upon a table, of different shapes—some circular, some triangular, some square, some oblong—and the persons acting these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly that we can say they were almost made for each other.
To which Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) contributes:
A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.
But to which I reflect:
If we look back, we find that the triangular person is to blame for the square person’s having to squeeze into the round hole. I resent having to change in order to find my place in life and (most likely uncomfortably) fit in.