Posts in Famous quotes
Words Worth Noting - January 13, 2024

“The proponents of the so called ‘new natural law theory,’ or ‘basic goods theory,’ say that we shouldn’t speak of the natural purposes of things. For example, we shouldn’t say that the natural purpose that anchors the sexual powers is procreation, because this ‘instrumentalizes’ and ‘depersonalizes’ us – it makes us tools for making babies. This is absurd. One might as well say that it depersonalizes us to say that the natural purpose of the intellectual powers is deliberating and knowing the truth.”

J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” April 17, 2023 [https://undergroundthomist.org/antipasto]

Words Worth Noting - January 12, 2024

“The stiff, formal meetings between two such people can resemble (as Northrop Frye said when ruefully acknowledging his own experience) a collision of monuments.”

Robert Fulford, re Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow, in Ottawa Citizen Citizen’s Weekly May 7, 2000

Famous quotes, HumourJohn Robson
Words Worth Noting - January 10, 2024

“If you believe in a principle, never damage it with poor expression.”

Engineer Charles Parson, on why they risked arrest by taking the steam turbine ship Turbinia through the big naval review for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee to show that this kind of engine was much faster, quoted on “Incredible Speed: Turbinia” [https://youtu.be/rcQN9UxEEcM?t=336].

Words Worth Noting - January 9, 2024

“Peggy Jones was mowing her lawn in Silsbee, about 100 miles northeast of Houston, on Tuesday when out of nowhere, a snake plummeted from the sky before landing on her arm and wrapping itself around her limb, she told Houston-based NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. As the snake tightened around her arm, a hawk suddenly swooped down from above and started attacking Jones as it tried to pry the serpent away from her. ‘The snake was squeezing so hard, and I was waving my arms in the air. And then, this hawk was swooping down clawing at my arm over and over,’ Jones, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, told KPRC. ‘I just kept saying, “Help me, Jesus. Help me, Jesus”,’ she said. She said the hawk came at her at least four times before it finally managed to get hold of the snake and fly away. Photos shared with KPRC appeared to show deep cuts and bruises on Jones’ bloodied right forearm following the attack. Jones said her husband took her to the emergency room after he heard her screaming and ran to her aid.... No snake bite was found, but Jones said she did find what appeared to be snake venom on her glasses, which were damaged during the incident. The Silsbee resident said people have told her she must be the unluckiest person alive to have both a snake and hawk attack her at the same time. However, she said: ‘I feel like the luckiest person alive to have survived this!’ She also said it wasn’t her first encounter with a snake — she already survived being bitten by a serpent a few years ago, KPRC reported.”

NBC August 9, 2023

Words Worth Noting - January 6, 2024

“For better than three decades, [Fr. Marvin] O’Connell was, by all accounts, an imposing presence in the classroom and a highly productive scholar. However, he was not so imposing that an occasional student couldn’t resist taking what might be termed a blue book liberty. In response to an essay question on the theology of Martin Luther an unnamed student came up with a ten-word ‘essay’ that, in his teacher’s estimate, captured the ‘contradiction that lies at the heart of Lutheran salvation theology.’ And here it is: ‘I’m not OK. And you’re not OK. But that’s OK.’”

Chuck Chalberg reviewing Telling Stories That Matter: Memoirs and Essays of Father Marvin O’Connell in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)