"Half his power lay in a conciliating trick of sinking the commander in the leader."

E.W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman gentleman thief

“Mr. Swinburne does not hang up his stocking on the eve of the birthday of Victor Hugo. Mr. William Archer does not sing carols descriptive of the infancy of Ibsen outside people’s doors in the snow…. The strange truth about the matter is told in the very word ‘holiday.’… It is hard to see at first sight why so human a thing as leisure and larkiness should always have a religious origin. Rationally there appears no reason why we should not sing and give each other presents in honour of anything--the birth of Michael Angelo or the opening of Euston Station.  But it does not work. As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously material about something spiritualistic."

G.K. Chesterton Heretics

"Et ce n’est pas important la guerre des moutons et des fleurs?"

The prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Le Petit Prince

In my latest Mercatornet article I say the extended version "making of" DVDs show that The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was an amazing logistical and creative achievement that unhappily missed much of the moral point of Tolkien's masterpiece.

"Pain is not suffering"

Slogan on a Nike ad featuring Olympian triathlete Simon Whitfield in Globe and Mail August 27, 2008