"history is above all concrete and particular, not general and abstract…. the thoughts and deeds of once living beings.”

Jacques Barzun From Dawn to Decadence

"it is axiomatic that one cannot have a duty to do something that cannot be done."

George Will in Washington Post August 17, 2003, quoted in Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer The Case for Democracy

"I want to do 'why to' DVDs instead of 'how to’s'. I think that if you understand why, you’re learning how."

Mike Holmes quoted in TV Guide April 4, 2005

"A professional is a man who can do his job when he doesn’t feel like it; an amateur is one who can’t when he does feel like it."

James Agate, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail Nov. 4, 2005

“Have they [the philosophers] found the cure for our ills? Is it curing man’s presumption to set him up as God’s equal?”

Blaise Pascal Pensées

“the words itched more than they tickled.”

Larry Hill in Maclean’s August 27, 2001

"On his deathbed, Chesterton proclaimed: 'The issue is now quite clear. It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side.'"

Kevin O’Reilly in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 5 #2 (October-November 2001)

"The past is hopeless. There’s too much of it."

Detective Nero Wolfe in Home to Roost, quoted in “Gilbert’s Top Dozen Pearls of Detective Wisdom” in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 5 # 3 (December 2001)