In my latest National Post column I challenge those prone to declaring policy debates “settled” to tell us on which subjects, if any, an intelligent, decent person might have a different view from theirs.

“Yes, he [Santayana] is urging us to remember our mistakes so that we do not repeat them. But he wants us to remember, as well, our glories. To forget our mistakes is bad. But to forget our successes may be worse.”

Neil Postman Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

“I do not think that we can hope to understand the problems and policies of our own day if we do not know the problems and policies out of which they grew.”

Lionel Robbins The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy

“In the heart of the remotest mountains rises the little Kirk…”

Thomas Carlyle The French Revolution

In my latest National Post column I say art galleries should not hide paintings after some Muslims call them blasphemous.

“the acknowledged Elizabethan habit of viewing history as a series of object lessons for present conduct.”

Sylvan Barnet’s “Overview” in the 1986 Signet Classic edition of William Shakespeare Julius Caesar