
Original: «Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple».
Fuente: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford Paperback Reference. Editora Susan Ratcliffe. Editorial OUP Oxford, 2011. ISBN 9780199567072. p. 22. https://books.google.es/books?id=KRiFmlT2cdIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=OUP+Oxford,+2011+ISBN%090199567077,+9780199567072&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6vODuoNfgAhXlsnEKHdl7BoEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Propose%20to%20an%20Englishman%20any%20principle%2C%20or%20any%20instrument%2C%20however%20admirable%2C%20and%20you%20will%20observe%20that%20the%20whole%20effort%20of%20the%20English&f=false