A leaning stack of five teacups balanced on a spoon on a blue-covered table against a coral background.

Original artwork, not a still

Apophthegms

Richard Whately

It is a folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

A dry observation that people rarely do everything they could sensibly be expected to do, so expecting perfection from them is itself unrealistic. The joke turns on the loop: a reasonable expectation becomes foolish precisely because it is reasonable and still unmet.

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