Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful

[ewx]

What do you have in your house that is...

1. useful
2. beautiful
3. both
4. neither

...?

(People and pets don't count.)

Comments

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

One could probably do a Utilitarian-ish bifurcation whereby "beautiful" implies inducing pleasure, and "useful" implies reducing pain.

[simont]

I suppose one could, although I'd argue that one would be stretching the definition of "beautiful" some distance beyond that guaranteed by the manufacturer, and might be in danger of voiding one's warranty. Possibly "useful" as well, though I haven't thought it through carefully.

Amazing the violence people will willingly inflict on a language just to patch the holes in one particular usage of it :-)