“Never follow rabbit tracks when you are fighting elephants.”
Sen. Gerry St. Germain quoted in Globe & Mail March 22, 2004
“It was a wise instinct by which heaven was symbolized by wings that are free as the wind, and hell symbolized by chains.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News February 15, 1930, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 2 (Nov.-Dec. 2022)
“Unless there is a good reason for its being there, do not inject opinion into a piece of writing. We all have opinions about almost everything, and the temptation to toss them in is great. To air one’s views gratuitously, however, is to imply that the demand for them is brisk, which may not be the case…”
William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White Elements of Style [I totally disagree; all writing is an attempt to persuade someone of a point of view.]
“The two great natural goods of marriage – the turning of the great wheel of the generations, and the union of a man and woman who cooperate in turning it – cannot be separated without damage to each of them. To suppress either one for the sake of happiness is to poison the very roots of joy.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” May 8, 2023 [https://www.undergroundthomist.org/things-i-had-to-learn]
“History sometimes rests on narrow shoulders.”
Paul Wells in National Post December 11, 1999
“Previous civilizations have degenerated. Previous ages have marched into the dark not knowing that they were marching into the dark. But in any previous time, were artists, scholars, and thinkers so eager to explain that degeneration was really progress?”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” April 17, 2023 [https://undergroundthomist.org/antipasto]
“Malign Neglect: Pierre Trudeau and the Politics of Indifference”
The title of Chapter 4, in Jack Granatstein Who Killed the Canadian Military?
“Jean Chretien’s government wants the shade from the tree, but aren’t willing to do anything to keep that tree strong.”
Canadian Alliance MP Monte Solberg quoted in the National Post March 31, 2003 [the specific context was Solberg supporting the second Gulf War but it obviously applies far more broadly as well as chronically to politicians and the Canadian Armed Forces]