“I refer to those who have fallen under the devilish spell of what is vaguely called ‘postmodernism,’ and in particular a subdivision of it sometimes called ‘deconstructionism.’… in this way of understanding things, language is under deep suspicion and is even thought to be delusional. Jean Baudrillard, a Frenchman, of all things, tells us that not only does language falsely represent reality, but there is no reality to represent. (Perhaps this explains, at long last, the indifferent French resistance to the German invasion of their country in World War II: They didn’t believe it was real.) In an earlier time, the idea that language is incapable of mapping reality would have been considered nonsense, if not a form of mental illness. In fact, it is a form of mental illness. Nonetheless, in our own time the ideas has become an organizing principle of prestigious academic departments. You can get a Ph.D. in this sort of thing.”

Neil Postman Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

“Anyone can learn from a good teacher. The real test is being able to learn from a bad one.”

J. Budziszewski “Underground Thomist” Feb. 25, 2019

“Pessimism insists on the shortness of human life in order to show that life is valueless. Religion insists on the shortness of human life in order to show that life is frightfully valuable – is almost horribly valuable. Pessimism says that life is so short that it gives nobody a chance; religion says that life is so short that it gives everybody his final chance.”

G.K. Chesterton, “Nicholas Nickleby”, in Appreciations and Criticisms of Charles Dickens, quoted in “Chesterton’s Mail Bag” in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 10 #4 (Jan.-Feb. 2007)

“Odd comparison: ‘Believing in God is like believing in Zeus.’ They aren’t even ‘gods’ in the same sense of the term. Zeus was a contingent being which something else caused to exist. God is the necessary being who causes all else to exist.”

J. Budziszewski in "Underground Thomist" email Feb. 25, 2019

“It seemed his career was just taking off.”

For that letter of recommendation for the person who never seems to be around the office when you need them, emailed by a friend attributed to Ralph C. Maddocks

“When the knight came upon the dragon, did he estimate whether the dragon could be overcome in his lifetime? No. He stood up and fought.”

J. Budziszewski in “Underground Thomist” email Feb. 25, 2019

“The future is, of course, an illusion. Nothing has happened there yet.... Among Marshall McLuhan’s many intriguing metaphors, the most paradoxical one is his reference to ‘rearview mirror’ thinking. All of us, he said, are speeding along a highway with our eyes fixed on the rearview mirror… He believed that only a few avantgarde artists (and, of course, himself) were capable of looking through the windshield so that they might tell us where we are going. The irony here is that the windshield is also a rearview mirror of sorts, for whatever future we see is only – can only be – a projection of the past.... Imagined futures are always more about where we have been than where we are going.”

Start of author’s “Introduction” to Neil Postman Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

Henry David Thoreau, quoted on www.hound-dog-media.com