“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

From 📰 Self-Reliance, 1841, read while I was drafting the promotion case and kept on 6 September.

People quote this as if he had written consistency is the hobgoblin. He wrote foolish consistency, and the adjective is the argument. Keeping a rule because yesterday's self announced it is foolish. Keeping a rule because you tested it and it holds is just a rule.

Which is how I square it with 📜 Use this system for ninety days without changing it. That was not consistency for its own sake. It had an end date, a review, and a list for the itches. Emerson would still have rebuilt his vault a fifth time, I suspect.