Edmund Wilson’s search for “ultimate meaning in the things of this world... quite often fooled him into thinking that the search for transcendent sensuality can be other than vain.”
Terry Teachout in National Review August 9, 1993
“I highly recommend the white wine… because it won’t stain as bad if I spill it on you…”
“Your resume says you have experience serving wine.”
“Did I mention it was a bad experience?”
Two characters in "Tina’s Groove" comic strip in Ottawa Citizen January 14, 2004
“Mysteries are like the sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes.”
John Donne "in his third satire" quoted by George Watson in Chronicles magazine September 1991
“Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze.”
G.K. Chesterton, “On Experience,” in All Is Grist, quoted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 #3 (Dec. 2000)
In my latest National Post column I say calls to make handguns illegal in a city in response to criminals using illegal handguns for illegal murders make no sense.
“For Wit and Judgment often are at strife,/ Tho’ meant each other’s Aid, like Man and Wife.”
Alexander Pope “An Essay on Criticism”
“your father, who was as sensible as he was wise – and the two things do not always go together…”
Jethro (to Chebron) in G.A. Henty Cat of Bubastes
“the religious worldview conforms to the most successful plot device ever conceived – namely, a happy ending that blossoms from difficulties necessarily confronted and overcome.”
Huston Smith Why Religion Matters