“In this cult of the pessimistic pleasure-seeker the Rubaiyat stands first in our time; but it does not stand alone.... The same lesson was taught by the very powerful and very desolate philosophy of Oscar Wilde. It is the carpe diem religion; but the carpe diem religion is not the religion of happy people, but of very unhappy people. Great joy does not gather the rosebuds while it may; its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which Dante saw. Great joy has in it the sense of immortality; the very splendour of youth is the sense that it has all space to stretch its legs in. In all great comic literature, in ‘Tristram Shandy’ or ‘Pickwick’, there is this sense of space and incorruptibility; we feel the characters are deathless people in an endless tale. It is true enough, of course, that a pungent happiness comes chiefly in certain passing moments; but it is not true that we should think of them as passing, or enjoy them simply ‘for those moments’ sake.’ To do this is to rationalize the happiness, and therefore to destroy it. Happiness is a mystery like religion, and should never be rationalized.”

G.K. Chesterton Heretics

“I would not breed from this officer”

One of several apparently authentic British military Officer Fitness Reports quoted by Steve Madely in Ottawa Sun February 10, 1999

In my latest Mercatornet column I say Biden’s hackneyed Inaugural speech may do no harm. But it did not rise to the occasion like, say, Lincoln’s magnificent Second Inaugural and did not even really seem to try.

“Pericles said, twenty-four centuries ago: ‘Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles.’ We do, indeed!”

Dale Carnegie How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

“a lion can spot a limp.”

Quoted in an email from a reader this fall, on the subject of foreign policy but sourced to “something I heard an ex-convict say about the danger of exhibiting weakness in prison.”

“I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.”

Bobby Fischer, quoted on Agadmator's YouTube channel.

“It is not because men’s desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.”

John Stuart Mill, quoted without further attribution in the Epoch Times email newsletter Oct. 1, 2020 (it is in fact from On Liberty)

“He was rude and unhygienic.”

“The robot head in Lexx: The Dark Zone Stories Jan. 1, 1999” [It’s the source I recorded and I’m sticking to it although I can offer no justification for ever having watched an episode (or even knowing the show existed, which in fact I’d forgotten) except that as summaries of someone’s undesirability go this line is excellent. Google confirms that the show existed and lasted four seasons (!) and says the robot head’s name was 790 and who am I to argue?]