“Previous civilizations have degenerated. Previous ages have marched into the dark not knowing that they were marching into the dark. But in any previous time, were artists, scholars, and thinkers so eager to explain that degeneration was really progress?”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” April 17, 2023 [https://undergroundthomist.org/antipasto]
“The observation that it is difficult to portray a really good person in fiction is nothing new. But why do our contemporary novelists find it so difficult even to portray a person we wouldn’t mind meeting? Even when they try? There are exceptions. Not many. The appalling thought occurs to me that maybe they like their characters.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” April 17, 2023 [https://undergroundthomist.org/antipasto ]
“Long ago he had heard of an old Chinese saying to the effect that a man who could concentrate for as much as three minutes on any given problem could rule the world.”
Louis L’Amour Flint
“Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.”
Herman Hesse, quoted as standalone “WORDS OF WISDOM” without further attribution in Epoch Times email teaser August 9, 2023
“the fate of all mankind I see is in the hands of fools”
King Crimson “Epitaph” from In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
“Lorsque notre haine est trop vive, elle nous met au-dessous de ceux que nous haïssons.”
La Rochefoucauld “Réflexions morales #338” in Maximes
“Isn’t it fun to go out on the course and lie in the sun?”
Bob Hope, quoted in my desktop golf calendar for June 21, 2023
“Vanitas vanitatum, which of us has his wish in this world, or, having it, is satisfied?”
G.K. Chesterton “Introduction to Thackeray”, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)