“Things do come to those who wait, but only things left over from those who hustle.”
Not Abraham Lincoln, despite countless internet attributions. (And to be blunt, it doesn’t sound like him either, in tone or content.) It’s still a good line. But not his.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say it is clown-level silliness for B.C. Premier John Horgan to insist that our health care system is brilliantly designed and crumbling simultaneously.
In my latest National Post column I ask whether Canadians will yet again excuse a pathetic performance by an elite institution because we are snobs.
“Why does the Post Office return a letter that’s one cent short on the postage? It costs more than a cent to get the extra penny. But if they didn’t, almost everyone would send insufficient postage letters and they’d lose a fortune.”
This one is from me (January 2, 2002) and if you think it prosaic, well, it’s still an important principle of economics.
“The world is filled with willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”
Widely attributed to Robert Frost online, but I haven’t seen any actual specific place he supposedly said or wrote it
“human behaviour ultimately derives from human volition – tastes, attitudes, values, and so on – and these aspects of volition in turn are either formed entirely by choices or are the product of biological or social processes that we cannot or will not change.... The one thing we cannot easily do, if we can do it at all, is change, by plan and systematically, the minds of men.”
James Q. Wilson Thinking About Crime
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say our political classes are reacting to inflation like a bird to a snake, paralyzed by approaching danger.
“More than seven decades after being founded based on socialist ideals, an Israeli kibbutz is producing the most capitalist of foods. Caviar fetching $4000 for a two-pound jar is being shipped more than 5,600 miles away to be served at some of New York's finest restaurants…. Yigal Ben Zvi is a member of Kibbutz Dan who decided to take matters into his own hands. With the help of eight workers, he now produces some of the best farmed caviar in the world…. However, Ben Zvi can’t speak from personal experience. Kibbutz members can’t enjoy the caviar because it's not kosher.”
NBC August 10 2012 (I think - my notes indicate the story might have been from a few days earlier)