Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

David Azzolina writes: “Psychotherapist Alfred Adler is quoted as having said, ‘The only normal people are people you don’t know well enough yet,’ or words to that effect. I have not been able to verify that quote with a legitimate source. I even wrote [Adler’s granddaughter] Margot Adler when she was alive and she only knew it by hearsay. Any suggestions?”

John Simbeck hopes someone can source a comment “by Nietzsche (or Goethe? Kierkegaard perhaps?)” that he paraphrases as “ ‘Steal a loaf of bread (or larger goods) and the weight of the Law comes down mercilessly; steal a fortune and you’re deemed daring; steal a country and you become a hero. The amount of blame falls in inverse proportion to the magnitude of the crime.’ That last phrase is the key part I remember the closest,” and differentiates the quotation from other versions of the same idea, such as that delivered by Brutus Jones in the opening scene of The Emperor Jones: “For de little stealin’ dey gits you in jail soon or late. For de big stealin’ dey makes you Emperor and puts you in de Hall o’ Fame when you croaks.”

Josh Mittendorf seeks the name of a short animated Canadian film (circa 1972) “told from the perspective of a homunculus inside a man’s head, who sketches on an easel dangerous things he sees that he wants to remember and avoid in the future. Soon there are so many, the outer man becomes jittery and visits a psychologist. The psychologist (German accent) fits him with glasses that make everything look smaller. He is no longer afraid of his boss or barking dogs, but in the last scene, he is crushed by a steamroller that appeared, through his glasses, to be too small to worry about.”

Sonnet written to someone old (January-February). Hank Hudepohl identified the work requested as “To My Mother on Her Seventy-third Birthday,” by Arthur Davison Ficke, A.B. 1904. It appears in his book The Secret and Other Poems (1936).

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

Click here for the March-April 2015 issue table of contents

Related Topics

You might also like

Reconstructing the Berlin Wall

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Off the Shelf

The wealth gap, shamanism, the life of David Nathan, and more

Making Money Funny

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

Most popular

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Harvard, Government Present Arguments in Funding Case

Judge questions relationship between antisemitism charges and grant cancellations.

Explore More From Current Issue

The Woman Who Rode Horses Into the Water

Scrapbooking a woman who rode horses into the sea

David Leo Rice on 'The Berlin Wall'

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Saluting the 2025 Centennial Medalists

Four alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are honored.