Fifteen men had sworn it was the truth, even if ten of them were suspect witnesses

‘Mala Francia! Mala Francia!’ (‘Wicked France! Wicked France!’), cried the Danish princess.1 Having spent only three months in the kingdom, Ingeborg of Denmark had as yet little French and had to fall back on Latin to express her pain and anger. Her interpreter had just translated the sentence of the bishops and barons who had assembled in the royal hall at Compiègne in November 1193 to investigate her genealogy. They had said that she could not be married to King Philip for they had found her too closely related to his first wife somehow. They were a little vague about the ‘how’ – and later they had to admit they’d made it up – but fifteen men had sworn it was the truth, even if ten of them were suspect witnesses.

J. Firnhaber-Baker, House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France (2024), loc.2,653

The first European heretics ever to be burned alive were executed by his order and in his presence

Educated in the liberal arts by Gerbert at his mother’s direction, he knew Scripture and canon law so well that he presided over Church councils and passed judgement alongside the bishops. The first European heretics ever to be burned alive were executed by his order and in his presence. Robert was also twice divorced, constantly at war, and once tried to burn down a monastery because it was in his way. His heart was tender and his disposition kindly, but the times were less hospitable to lovers than to fighters.

J. Firnhaber-Baker, House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France (2024), loc.899

I tried to recall all the information I knew about love

I tried to recall all the information I knew about love. Unfortunately this information didn’t amount to much. Although more than thirteen years of my life had passed, up to that moment I’d never seen anyone in love. At that time very few books about love or descriptions of the condition of people in love had been printed. Besides, they wouldn’t have let us read any of them.

Iraj Pezeshkzad, tr. D. Davis, My Uncle Napoleon (1973), loc.248

As the D-Day landings were hitting the beach, only 36 per cent of the British people thought the government could be trusted

Even in the summer of 1944, as the D-Day landings were hitting the beach, only 36 per cent of the British people thought the government could be trusted to put the country’s interest above their own individual or party’s interest

B. Duffy, The perils of perception (2018), loc. 3,228

Countless experiments show that around 10 per cent of the public don’t understand simple percentages.

MRI studies of the brains of humans (and monkeys!) indicate that we have an inbuilt ‘number sense’, but we are particularly attuned to the numbers one, two and three, and, beyond that, to detecting large (not small) differences in comparing numbers of an object. We often fall back on these evolutionary number skills. But much of life involves calculations that are more complex than comparing the relative size of small numbers. A century ago the great science fiction writer H. G. Wells said: … endless social and political problems are only accessible and only thinkable to those who have had a sound training in mathematical analysis, and the time may not be very remote when… for complete initiation as an efficient citizen of one of the new great complex world-wide States that are now developing, it is as necessary to be able to compute, to think in averages and maxima and minima, as it is now to be able to read and write. Wells’s reference to how important mathematical understanding is to ‘endless social and political problems’ seems made for our times, but we’ve got a long way to go before we’ll completely satisfy his vision. Countless experiments show that around 10 per cent of the public don’t understand simple percentages.

For example, if you spin a coin twice, what’s the probability of getting two heads? The answer is 25 per cent, because there are four equal-probability outcomes: two heads, two tails, heads then tails and tails then heads. Worryingly, only one in four people in a nationally representative survey got this right

B. Duffy, The perils of perception (2018), loc. 325 & 340

It is not every one who has the courage to bring dogs into an expensive private hotel

It is not every one who has the courage to bring dogs into an expensive private hotel; to bring one dog indicates that you are not accustomed to deny yourself small pleasures for the sake of a few extra shillings; to bring two indicates that you have no fear of hotel-managers and that you are in the habit of regarding your own whim as nature's law.

A. Bennett, The old wives' tale (1908), 422

Chirac, like most men who have once found a woman weak, imagined that he understood women profoundly

Chirac, like most men who have once found a woman weak, imagined that he understood women profoundly. He thought of women as the Occidental thinks of the Chinese, as a race apart, mysterious but capable of being infallibly comprehended by the application of a few leading principles of psychology. Moreover he was in earnest; he was hard driven, and he was honest. He continued, respectfully obedient in withdrawing his arm:

A. Bennett, The old wives' tale (1908), 334