“One of the ancient Greek philosophers is credited with the statement: ‘Anything worth doing is worth doing well.’”

James Buchanan What Should Economists Do? but beware the attribution because my notes also contain “‘Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.’ - Earl of Chesterfield, 1746” [D.P. Diffiné, “The 1993 American Incentive System Almanac”] and “it was said of Nicholas Poussin, the painter, that the rule of his conduct was, that ‘whatever was worth doing at all was worth doing well;’” [Samuel Smiles Self-Help]

“A joke can be so big that it breaks the roof of the stars.”

G.K. Chesterton in “The Dickens Period” in Charles Dickens, quoted in “Can’t You Take A Joke?” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)

“There’s no standard dress code for events any more, which always leaves me wondering: Is it better to overdress or underdress? At a film opening recently, two guys wearing baseball caps and chore jackets were the coolest people in the room. But the few times I’ve gone casual for an event, I’ve worried that I came off as impertinent at worst and out of place at best. Is there a right way to be underdressed? — Rachel, Brooklyn/ This is like ‘Hamlet,’ the S.N.L. version. You can just imagine a host wandering around a set crying, ‘to overdress or underdress, that is the question?’ as they beat their breast and rend their doublet. In truth, there are two camps here. On one side, there are those who hew to what could be called the school of Coco Chanel. The famous French designer believed it was always better to be underdressed and was fond of issuing such maxims as ‘Elegance is refusal’ and ‘Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.’ On the other side are the heirs of Iris (Apfel), the geriatric influencer who died earlier this year. She lived her life according to the conviction that more is more: more prints, more bracelets, more fun. Also in this camp is the designer Christian Siriano, who just made the purple pantsuit Oprah wore for her speech at the Democratic National Convention. ‘I truly feel that it is always better to be overdressed than underdressed,’ he said when I asked. ‘I’m a designer who loves the glamour of it all, so for me there really isn’t a right way to be underdressed unless you are actually laying by the pool or at the beach.’ Even then, he said, the look should include ‘a fabulous big hat and bag.’ As with most belief systems, however, the choice between over- or underdressing is not really about which option is objectively better or worse; it’s about what is right for you.”

New York Times August 26, 2024 [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/style/under-over-dressed-events.html] (and more from the bottomless navel of relativism)

“when people work at jobs that require the inhibition of imagination and creativity, any activity that permits those qualities - no matter how difficult or demanding - is experienced as play, not work.”

Lillian Breslow Rubin Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working-Class [re hobbies like tinkering with cars].

“Like most thinkers of his time, [Marcus] Aurelius conceived philosophy not as a speculative description of infinity, but as a school of virtue and a way of life. He hardly bothers to make up his mind about God; sometimes he talks like an agnostic, acknowledging that he does not know; but having made that admission, he accepts the traditional faith with a simple piety. ‘Of what worth is it to me,’ he asks, ‘to live in a universe without gods or Providence?’”

Will Durant Caesar and Christ

“In 1870, the Prussian army had captured the French emperor, Napoleon III, who followed Charles X, Metternich, and Louis-Philippe into exile in London.”

Conrad Black Rise to Greatness: The History of Canada from the Vikings to the Present [but he does not take what I consider to be the obvious point that all these continentals who sneer at the English-speaking world flee to it when in trouble, knowing it is the true and only home of liberty]

“You must have taken great pains, sir; you could not naturally have been so very stupid.”

Samuel Johnson as “Quote” in Montreal Gazette July 22, 2004

“the experience of hearing Judy Garland sing ‘Over the Rainbow.’ When the song and the credits end, I am left with the feeling that ought to be a paradise, and I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’s famous quote: ‘If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.’ We do not need to only participate in dark or troubling stories, but we do need to give priority to stories that haunt us, unsettle us, and expand us, whether through beauty and delight or tragedy. We also need to make time and space to interpret the stories through dialogue with others. Living in an atomistic culture, our default response to receiving a story is not to interpret it in community. We may have a personal opinion about it. We may tweet a 280 character review. We may debate parts of the story. But most of us are not inclined to take the time to slowly work through the meanings of the story and dialogue with one another. In other words, the prolonged, thoughtful, charitable dialogue about stories I’m recommending will not happen naturally. We need to intentionally pursue it.”

Alan Noble Disruptive Witness