# Kenko

The following quotations are from “Essays in Idleness” (Kenko, c.
1283-1352):

“If there is no advantage in changing a thing it is better not to change
it.” (\#127)

“It is a pleasant thing when a person comes without business and leaves
after a quiet talk. Joyful, too, to get a letter just asking how you
are, after a long silence.” (\#170)

“It is always better to be simple and uninteresting than to be
interesting but affected.” (\#231)

But:

“Somehow there is always a charm about even the most impromptu and
careless sayings of the men of bygone days.” (\#14)

Kenko can generally be counted upon to say pretty things when provoked.
(Essay \#191 is “I think it a pity to hear a man say that things do not
look their best at night. … Good-looking people look even better at
night by lamplight; and it is pleasant to hear the voices of people
talking guardedly in the dark. Perfumes and music, too, are most
pleasing at night-time.”)

Another tremendous book is Abelard’s The Story of My Misfortunes. (This
is the Abelard of
[Abelard](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=3347) and
[Heloise](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=40766) (Heloise link a
better, shorter, summary)–basically, Abelard shagged Heloise, and then
got castrated for it.) Abelard’s this 12th Century genius French
philosopher who battles his way through life troubled by not a skerrick
of self-doubt. From the Foreword, a note to the reader: “in comparing
your sorrows with mine, you may discover that yours are in truth
nought”–not only is he smarter everyone else, but his misfortunes are
the greater too.

There is an [on-line
version](http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/abelard-histcal.html), but
a printed version is probably better. [_Update!_ I love this book so
much that I produced some [nicely-formatted versions](/abelard/).)