“He [Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a high-performing debauchee] was well versed in Greek as well as Roman literature, was a discriminate collector of art (usually by military means), had the works of Aristotle brought from Athens to Rome as a part of his richest spoils, and found time, between war and revolution, to write his Memoirs for the misguidance of posterity.”
Will Durant Caesar and Christ
“Stereotyping – how like an Anglo.”
Me regarding Quebec reactions to RoC reactions to the Adscam scandal, March 2004.
“Growing your own tomatoes is the best way to devote 3 months of your life to saving $2.17”
Emailed by a friend without attribution September 20, 2024
“I got an invitation from Carleton University’s College of the Humanities and College Anniversary Committee to a 10th anniversary celebration with a lecture from professor Roy Mottahedeh of Harvard on ‘Pluralism in Non-Western Traditions: the Case of Islam’ which added (generically) ‘Your presence will enrich this momentous occasion for us.’ And I thought ‘Sorry, I’m having my leg pulled that night.’”
One of mine, from September 15, 2006
“Man Unsure If He’s Becoming More Virtuous With Age Or Just Too Tired To Sin”
Babylon Bee headline August 27, 2024
“If you spell ‘absolutely nothing’ backwards, you get gnihton yletulosba which means absolutely nothing.”
Emailed by a friend without attribution; it seems to be widely available online.
“he has occasional flashes of silence that make it quite delightful.”
Sydney Smith, quoted in Jacques Barzun From Dawn to Decadence [on the historian Macaulay’s tendency to monopolize conversations]
“There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.”
Archie Goodwin’s internal monologue in Rex Stout Death of a Doxy [setup for admitting he made one up to do with murders].