| 词源 |
don’t change horses in midstream. The phrase, possibly suggested to Abraham Lincoln by an old Dutch farmer he knew, is recorded almost a quarter of a century before Lincoln said it. But Lincoln immortalized the expression when he ac- cepted his nomination for the presidency in 1864. Waving aside any suggestions that the honor was a personal one, he told the Republicans that he was sure they hadn’t decided he was “the greatest or the best man in America, but rather, . . . have con- cluded it is not best to swap horses while crossing the river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they might not make a botch of it in trying to swap.” Over the years “the river,” which was of course the Civil War, was abbreviated to “midstream” and the saying don’t change horses in midstream came to mean “don’t change leaders in a crisis.” |