A nail, to hang his thoughts on.
a lemon stuck full of nails, used as a death maker
(fattura della morte), from a drawing of this remarkable object now in the Pitt Rivers Museum,
ex Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye : An Account of this Ancient & Widespread Superstition (London 1895) : 58
“The winding of the thread or yarn amongst the nails has doubtless its especial meaning...”
—
epigram from The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert : A Selection. Translated by Paul Auster (1983, 2005) : 126
tags: nails; Joseph Joubert