“I have in my own fashion learned the lesson that life is effort, unremittingly repeated.”
Henry James, emailed by a friend and sourced to Henry James: A Life
“In 1867, Matthew Arnold heard the ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’ of the Sea of Faith.”
Charles J. Sykes, A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character
“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.”
Henry David Thoreau to his graduating class at Harvard, 1837, cited by Wendell Berry in a sermon reprinted in Harpers magazine March 1988
“A key tenet of standard economics is that making people happy is a simple matter of giving them more of what they like. But neuroscience shows that’s not true. The brain’s striatum quickly gets used to new stimuli and expects them to continue. People are on a treadmill in which only unexpected pleasures can make them happier. That explains why happiness of people in rich countries hasn’t increased despite higher living standards.”
Peter Coy in BusinessWeek, quoted in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail April 4, 2005
“the bullion is not worth the dive”
Rex Murphy in Globe & Mail July 15, 2000 (specifically regarding not bothering to decipher most rap lyrics).
In my latest National Post column, I warn that reflexively scoffing at the rubes who don’t like sending their money to Quebec and think they can stop it would be disastrous.
“No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.”
Dr. Johnson, quoted in Chronicles magazine August 1991
In my latest Epoch Times column I say the answer to declining social trust, including on COVID lockdowns and vaccines, isn’t to shame and silence people, it’s to have an intelligent and respectful discussion. Which apparently now makes me a kook.