“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts everything you said today. Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood. Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? [...] To be great is to be misunderstood.”
“One of the greatest calamities of civilization is an educated fool.”
“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance.”
The Shoe King
When Tomáš Bata died in an airplane crash on 12 July 1932 in Otrokovice, the national newspaper wrote, “He retired from his full-time job, with which he secured the lives of his co-workers’ families, which was strengthened by his native region, and which he devotedly served his nation and all of humanity”