The cost of trust. The price paid for the comfort of trusting people
From EM Forster’s 1910 book Howard’s End
Naomi – 1970s
Naomi Iliff (King) – owner
”Yes, I think the apostle spoons could have gone as rent,” said Margaret. Seeing that her aunt did not understand, she added: “You remember ‘rent’? It was one of father’s words – Rent to the ideal, to his own faith in human nature. You remember how he would trust strangers, and if they fooled him he would say, ‘It’s better to be fooled than to be suspicious’ – that the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want-of-confidence trick is the work of the devil.”
—Howard’s End chapter 5