Eassy About Benjamin Franlin's Adage
‘For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.’ This was one of Benjamin Franklin’s proverbs which established in 1930s. As we all know, the proverb describes the loss of an empire just because of a missing small nail. No matter how well you prepared, a small neglect could still breed great mischief. Sometimes it may only cost you a little money; sometimes it may hurt others; but sometimes it do cause catastrophe.
If we ignore those minutia or little things happened in our daily life, it may cause failure. On the bloodiest day in American history—September 17, 1862—the Civil War Battle of Sharpsburg, which resulted in nearly 23000 casualties. Just a few days before that, General Lee divided his army to several parts and sent them to different location. He then sent orders by writing on some dispatches, which would be delivered to commanders by couriers on horseback. Unfortunately, one of the written dispatches was accidentally dropped from a courier’s mail bag and was found by a Union soldier. It is dispatch that gave Union Army the exact location of the Confederate Army and finally beat them. The loss of this dispatch was a small neglect, even just carelessness, but the result of that was the loss the Civil War Battle and hundreds of thousands of people’s death.
Neglecting happens when we are judging upon our experience or we are over confident, but disasters often come when we are ignoring. The film Titanic, directed by James Cameron, was a huge success. The film moved us not only by the love between Jack and Rose, but also by this huge ship’s sinking. In reality this so called unsinkable ship stroke an iceberg at the midnight of 15 April 1992, and just within two hours 1500 people dead and the ship lay down at the bottom of the sea. It is said that several hours before the colliding the commander received the warning of icebergs, but he ignored the alarm and keep the ship in full
If we ignore those minutia or little things happened in our daily life, it may cause failure. On the bloodiest day in American history—September 17, 1862—the Civil War Battle of Sharpsburg, which resulted in nearly 23000 casualties. Just a few days before that, General Lee divided his army to several parts and sent them to different location. He then sent orders by writing on some dispatches, which would be delivered to commanders by couriers on horseback. Unfortunately, one of the written dispatches was accidentally dropped from a courier’s mail bag and was found by a Union soldier. It is dispatch that gave Union Army the exact location of the Confederate Army and finally beat them. The loss of this dispatch was a small neglect, even just carelessness, but the result of that was the loss the Civil War Battle and hundreds of thousands of people’s death.
Neglecting happens when we are judging upon our experience or we are over confident, but disasters often come when we are ignoring. The film Titanic, directed by James Cameron, was a huge success. The film moved us not only by the love between Jack and Rose, but also by this huge ship’s sinking. In reality this so called unsinkable ship stroke an iceberg at the midnight of 15 April 1992, and just within two hours 1500 people dead and the ship lay down at the bottom of the sea. It is said that several hours before the colliding the commander received the warning of icebergs, but he ignored the alarm and keep the ship in full