Word: imperfectibility
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...from the Cologne Opera for nothing. Again, the essential humor of the piece was unrealized. Suggestions of parody were thrown out: the troupe member who always upstages the others, the girl on roller skates pushed toward--oops--the audience...but the performance tripped on the untied shoestring of its imperfect technique and fell flat. The man who was to catch the roller skater stepped out from the wings about 100 feet of stage too early, etc. Slapstick succeeds only if there is a firmly controlled base, an unshakeable structure in time, space, and the coordination of the two; the Tanz...
...their own consciences. But this does not mean that one is entitled to ignore laws with which one merely does not agree. Such an attitude destroys the effectiveness of our institutions and the possibility of effective social reform. Laws after all flow from institutions which though admittedly imperfect are the best form of Government yet devised...
...sense that evil is a constant presence and inextricably mixed with good. That is why every new American generation seems to discover evil as if it had been invented only yesterday-and by the older generation. There is not much of the insight that man and society are permanently imperfect...
President Giovanni Leone was forced to call the election a year ahead of schedule-the statutory term for a Parliament is five years -since the country's imperfect governmental system had once again worked imperfectly. The latest patchwork Christian Democratic government, headed by Premier Aldo Moro, finally collapsed last month after the Socialist Party withdrew its necessary support. Leone had no choice but to let the voters make a fresh choice, under a parliamentary system that in 30 years has produced nearly 40 revolving-door governments...
...make West Point what George Patton Jr. called a "holy place," an institution that Maxwell Taylor describes as "something like the church; it is not for everyone, only for those with a true vocation." Agrees Berry: "The code's a statement of ideals that I think is sound. Imperfect human beings don't measure up to ideals. It's a pretty demanding code. But the battlefield is a pretty demanding place...