A Constant Idea: 759
From Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 1919:
| NUMBER: | 759 |
| AUTHOR: |
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| QUOTATION: | I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad. |
| ATTRIBUTION: |
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1. [text] |
"Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you with any more. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living, to know that Plato might break out with an original lecture tomorrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a single song. The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth that he has never seen before."
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
The number 759 is courtesy of Plato; the quotation 759 above is courtesy of Shakespeare. The song that Shakespeare suggests is "A Day in the Life of a Fool."