A face in the crowd: the “above the fold” photo from the UN Security Council meeting on The New York Times‘ website this morning.
First and foremost, there can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt. All religions have their tabernacles, and no man is a hero to his valet. In the designs, the demeanor, and the mental operations of a leader there must always be ‘something’ which others cannot altogether fathom, which puzzles the, stirs them, and rivets their attention…aloofness, character, and the personification of quietness, these qualities it is that surround with prestige those who are prepared to carry a burden that is too heavy for lesser mortals.
—Charles de Gaulle in The Edge of the Sword