2010 - with courage and fortitude

So another year has passed, another decade in fact. 10 years have passed since the world was worrying about the coming Y2K bug, which turned out to be unnecessary like so many worries. In 2010 the world has bigger things to worry about. But let us worry about them tomorrow. Today I wish you a Happy New Year’s Day, spent with family and friends, and time to reflect on what you wish for yourself and for others in 2010. And I wish you above all courage and fortitude, which will see you through whatever the year has in store.

But sudden apparitions of imminent danger many times break our resolutions; and the fancy troubled with the imagination of approaching peril chases away true judgment from her seat. For fear not only astonishes the memory, according to the saying of Thucydides, but it dissipates all manner of consideration, sense of honour, and resolution; while philosophy binds and keeps them together. Plutarch

Noble therefore was the saying of Antisthenes, that we ought to wish an enemy all things beneficial to mankind except fortitude; for so these blessings will belong not to their possessors but to the conqueror. Therefore it was, they say, that Nature provided for the hart, one of the most timorous of creatures, such large and branchy horns, to teach us that strength and weapons nothing avail where conduct and courage are wanting. Plutarch