not seldom

“Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom.”

Not seldom, you can see that Kerr is having fun.

Which would have drawn a nod from Dr. Freud, who wrote: “If a man has been his mother’s undisputed darling, he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in his success, which not seldom brings actual success with it.”

“Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom,” wrote Edmund Burke, and his warning is likely to set the pattern for the UK government’s response, whatever the outcome of the vote.

It may be, as one psychologist told a reporter, that “eighty percent of people think they’re better than average,” but, he added, it was also the case that “psychologically healthy people generally twist the world to their advantage just a little bit”—echoing Freud’s observation that “confidence in success . . . not seldom brings actual success along with it.”