"A trend is a trend is a trend, but the question is will it bend? Will it alter its course, through some unforeseen force and come to a premature end?" Sir Alec Cairncross, former chief economic adviser to the British government, quoted in The Economist August 10, 1991

"Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining." Anne Lamott, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe and Mail September 6, 2002

"Was Kierkegaard right when he said that all despair about earthly things is actually – and without us necessarily being aware of this – despair about the Eternal?" Leszek Kolakowski in First Things June-July 2003

"A pessimist’s blood type is always b-negative." One of "Gilbert!’s Top Dozen Very Bad Puns" in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 5 #8 (July/August 2002)

"If you cannot mould yourself as you would wish, how can you expect other people to be entirely to your liking?" Thomas à Kempis, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe and Mail October 21, 2002

"What has happened, can happen." Aristotle, quoted by Conor Cruise O’Brien in The Siege (with specific reference to the Holocaust)

"If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." "Stein's Law", named for economist Herb Stein (cited by Robert J. Samuelson in National Post January 1 1999)

In my latest National Post column I praise Prince Philip for his character, modesty and acid wit, three things the modern world needs badly.