Details
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") to Douglas W. Freshfield, New York, 19 November 1914. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, on TR's personal stationery, a few revisions by TR.
"EVEN AMONG EXPERTS THERE IS A CERTAIN PERCENTAGE OF FOOLS"
Just returned from a 1,500-mile trip through Brazil, Roosevelt ridicules an earlier explorer: "...Landor's answers are typical of the way he handles all such controversies. I don't wonder at his fooling ignorant outsiders, because he...always avoids the main point of controversy and makes assertions [so] reckless that it is really difficult to meet them excepting by a flat statement of their perfectly obvious falsehood. Of course, even among experts, there is a certain percentage of fools...and if the impostor can get enough notoriety he will find any number of supporters of the same intellectual type...I hope you have received a copy of my Brazilian book...[Y]ou will note...that I briefly took up Landor's account of his Brazilian tour. I did not state all that the Brazillians told me...They told me he was very self-indulgent and rather lazy and that when he endeavoured to ascend a small mountain, he gave out and abandoned the attempt, while they went on to the summit and hoisted their flag on the mountain..." Teddy toured Brazil in 1914 to gather plant and animal specimens.
"EVEN AMONG EXPERTS THERE IS A CERTAIN PERCENTAGE OF FOOLS"
Just returned from a 1,500-mile trip through Brazil, Roosevelt ridicules an earlier explorer: "...Landor's answers are typical of the way he handles all such controversies. I don't wonder at his fooling ignorant outsiders, because he...always avoids the main point of controversy and makes assertions [so] reckless that it is really difficult to meet them excepting by a flat statement of their perfectly obvious falsehood. Of course, even among experts, there is a certain percentage of fools...and if the impostor can get enough notoriety he will find any number of supporters of the same intellectual type...I hope you have received a copy of my Brazilian book...[Y]ou will note...that I briefly took up Landor's account of his Brazilian tour. I did not state all that the Brazillians told me...They told me he was very self-indulgent and rather lazy and that when he endeavoured to ascend a small mountain, he gave out and abandoned the attempt, while they went on to the summit and hoisted their flag on the mountain..." Teddy toured Brazil in 1914 to gather plant and animal specimens.