Quote, for my own reference

[redbird]

Because I like the way they put this:

the underlying purpose behind making a relationship contractual rather than voluntary is that at some point in the future, in changed circumstances, something people were at the outset willing to do may be something that they need to be compelled to do

The way it was phrased to me once, in the context of publishing contracts, was that they should be negotiated as though you and the publisher were the best of friends, but at some point in the life of the property, you would both be run over by a truck, and your heirs would hate each other.

 —malkingrey

Comments

[drwex]

I'm trying to remember whether it was Shaw or Wilde or one of their contemporaries who is credited with saying, "A contract is an agreement between gentlemen for when one of them becomes an asshole."

[legionseagle]

It seems unlikely that two Irishmen would have used the term "asshole". Even "arsehole" wasn't recorded as being used of a person until 1933.