“But by the mid-twentieth century, God was killed off in the public mind – or if not killed, then badly disabled…”

William D. Gairdner The Trouble With Democracy

“An intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, a wise man hardly anything.”

Goethe, quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail May 17, 2006

In my latest National Post column I say if you don’t like people blocking access to hospitals and shouting at health care workers in over-the-top frustration, and I don’t, you must not excuse illegal “direct action” when you do support the cause.

“We do not read Aristotle to find out what people used to think, but for guidance on the issues of today.”

Here I quote myself, from October 1996.

“You always have to go on that, your instinctive trust or – your lack of trust. In the final analysis, there is really nothing else you can go on.”

Philip K. Dick VALIS

“What if lawyers and economists wrote the sitcoms? Very likely, they would turn out so that they more closely approximated the agony and pain of real life, which is really so frightening that it simply has to be funny.”

An author whose name I did not record in The American Spectator August 1988

Réflexions morales #174 “Il vaut mieux employer notre esprit à supporter les infortunes qui nous arrivent qu’à prévoir celles qui nous peuvent arriver.”

La Rochefoucauld Maximes

“A frightening scene stands out in my memory: three husky Russian policemen, with faces resembling bare buttocks, invading our apartment in search of subversive books.”

Nicolas Slonimsky Perfect Pitch