Word Analysis
1. It is essential to a politician that he should have his firmest friends among the fools, or his climbing days will soon be over.
The quote begins by pointing out the importance of what is about to be said. The quote further states that, fundamentally, the politician keeps his firmest friends among the fools. This is an ironic statement considering that these two groups of people are opposite how the politicians regard them. Notably, there must be an essential reason as to why they need to be put together. The quote further states that failure to do so will stop the politician’s climbing days. Climbing days are metaphorically used to represent his successful days.
Fools are generally parties lacking judgment or sense or, in the political context, can be irrational. The politician’s firmest friends can be very irrational, especially when looking out for their interests. The politician’s best interest has the opinions and advice from his firmest friends on conducting himself politically at the same position as fools’ opinion as they cannot be fully trusted. The politician should keep the two groups away in the order he can remain successful.
2. Ordinarily, I believe that I have as high a spirit as the average man, and as solid a resolution; but when one has been dragged through the Valley of Humiliation, and plunged, again and again, into the Waters of Bitterness and Privation, a man can be constrained to a course of action of which, in his happier moments, he would have deemed himself incapable. I know this of my knowledge.
The quote is an individual’s belief that he firmly holds that it is now a common statement. He equates his level of spirit to that of an average person through figurative language and has a very solid resolution. Nonetheless, he has also learned from his own experience -“I know this of my own knowledge”- that he can be pushed to do something that he could have never imagined to do even in his happier times. The individual’s repeated experiences of humiliation, hardships, and helplessness have taught him that no action is beyond his reach despite having the same determination and decision-making as the average person.
