A fresh green apple and a shrivelled brown apple stand on either side of a small brass balance scale.

Original artwork, not a still

Blaise Pascal

Things are always at their best in the beginning.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker believes that most things peak at their start and then decline. Early freshness, promise and novelty are treated as the high point, with what follows a gradual falling away. It is a wistful observation that first stages tend to be better than the results.

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