“All serious political and moral philosophy, and thus any serious social inquiry, must begin with an understanding of human nature. Though society and its institutions shape man, man’s nature sets limits on the kinds of societies we can have. Cicero said that the nature of law must be founded on the nature of man (a natura hominis discenda est natura juris).”

James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein, Crime and Human Nature

“With G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc and Maurice Baring, I never differed—except in opinion.”

John Buchan, quoted by Roger Kimball, in The New Criterion September 2003

Rasselas reflects on the difference between a beast and man. “’I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied with fulness. The intermediate hours are long and gloomy; I long again to be hungry that I may again quicken my attention.’”

Samuel Johnson The History of Rasselas

Re kids’ preference for bland junk food “It is a situation which I classify (along with most other aspects of domestic life) as desperate but not serious.”

Robert Capon The Supper of the Lamb

In my latest National Post column I say if the press take a “UFO expert” seriously we contribute to a general atmosphere of idiocy in public discussion.

“Happiness is a hard master – particularly other people’s happiness. A much harder master, if one isn’t conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth.”

Mustapha Mond in Aldous Huxley Brave New World