Word: slight
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...commonplace book, Thomas Jefferson has included a favorite quotation from Euripides: "For with slight efforts, how should one obtain great results? It is foolish even to desire it." Those few words aptly characterize Jefferson himself. He has never done anything lightly or halfheartedly, and all his life the young author of the Declaration of Independence has made great efforts to obtain great results...
Despite his formidable military appearance, Washington's actual military experience was relatively slight and occurred long ago. As a novice of 22, he headed an unsuccessful militia effort, skirmishing with the French near the Ohio River, and he then spent three years patrolling the western frontiers against marauding Indians. In 1755, at the disastrous battle before Fort Duquesne, he served as an aide to the ill-fated General Edward Braddock. Washington had two horses shot from under him (and four bullet holes shot into his hat and coat) while trying to rally the men. He was cool in action...
...this proud achievement had made him an outcast with the Southern senatorial barons. As if the memory still pains, Humphrey recalls Georgia's Richard Russell referring to him as "a damn fool." Humphrey's insecurity and ambition, his need for approval made ostracism, indeed, any sort of slight, unendurable. He never forgot the experience. From then on, Humphrey placed an unacceptably high premium on approval. In the end, it was this that stopped the energetic, engaging and gregarious Midwesterner just short of fulfilling his dream...
Such performances have turned Enrico Berlinguer into Italy's new political star (and according to one survey, also its most sexy, in the view of Italian women). Yet, like his party, the slight. shy, introspective Berlinguer is riddled with typically European paradoxes. He is a thorough Marxist theoretician who has devoted his life to the party since he was a teenager. Yet this leader of the proletariat is customarily addressed by fellow Sardinians on vacation trips home as "Don Enrico" because of the family's prestige. As a Communist and atheist, Berlinguer ought to be a rigorous enemy...
...case in point, which coincidentally is causing a furor this spring, involves Steven Verr, 19, a slight (5 ft. 9 in., 140 Ibs.), mild-mannered fourth classman, or freshman. Verr's troubles began last August while he was attending "Beast Barracks," the summer of rigorous training and hazing given to incoming plebes (a word derived from plebeians). Verr was subjected to a traditional form of harassment: upperclassmen ordered him not to put certain foods on his tray, or made him sit at attention while others ate. After going hungry for two days, Verr had tears in his eyes...