“The question which moral system was the best depends principally on the question whether the heathen philosophers or the Christian preachers were right in their estimate of the facts. To suppose that Christian morals can ever survive the downfall of the great Christian doctrine is as absurd as to suppose that a yearly tenant will feel towards his property like a tenant in fee simple.”
James Fitzjames Stephen, “Note on Utilitarianism” postscript to Stephen's book Liberty Equality Fraternity
"Liberty underlies the entire enterprise; it’s not just one more vector in an indifference curve.”
Walter Block in Michael Walker, ed., Freedom Democracy and Economic Welfare: Proceedings of an International Symposium
In my latest National Post column I ask: if this is not the moment to stand on conservative principle, when would be?
"'People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one asks the inventor what he thinks of other people.' – Charles K. Kettering (1876-1958) American Engineer, Inventor"
www.yuni.com/quotes/kettering.html
“we have lost a vision of man. We are not sure how different he actually is from animal or vegetable or rock or mineral. It is partly, I think, because we have ceased trying to relate ourselves to God: we no longer even cry that God is dead; instead, we have named him an hypothesis, a dream, and turned him over to the laboratory to ‘prove.’ And because we have stopped searching for God we have stopped searching for ultimate meaning, saying there is no purpose in human existence. Hence all is absurdity, all is nothing. The more honest among those who want God ‘proved’ tend to seek uneasy solace in neo-nihilism; or, putting heart above logic, in humanism - while the less honest settle for their own brand of idol worship, sacrificing all to success or skin color or capitalism or communism or their work or their pleasure, whispering, Let’s don’t think about it.”
Lillian Smith Killers of the Dream