Train wreck

Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, Paris, France, 1895.

From Daphne Merkin, If Looks Could Steal, N.Y. Times (March 22, 2009):

[T]o call Mr. Madoff a sociopath isn’t really to explain him so much as to explain our failure to pick up on his scam. “Everything that deceives,” decreed Plato, “can be said to enchant.” Enter the sorcerer, the ganef, the man without qualities but with steady returns — and, I might add, a family man to the end. . . .

Enter us, the believers, the ones who signed on for the ride until it went off the rails, leaving wreckage as far as the eye could see.

Let's repeat that Platonic formula: “Everything that deceives can be said to enchant.” These are words worth remembering. Et encore, cette fois en français:

Le Renard s'en saisit, et dit :"Mon bon Monsieur,
Apprenez que tout flatteur
Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute:
Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage sans doute."