“Here is someone who with a great effort is going to say something very silly.”
Terence, quoted in Pascal Pensées
“Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.”
Elbert Hubbard according to www.quotationspage.com as of Dec. 10, 2005.
“As an example, Americans who watch an average amount of TV and film, and listen to modern music, will probably find it incredibly difficult not to believe that their lives can be justified if they find and marry the right person. Ernest Becker argues that the modern relationship is all many of us have left after the so-called ‘death of God.’ When another human being looks directly into your eyes and confesses their self-giving love to you for life, that is a profound affirmation of your existence. In the church, we believe that marriage reflects something of the relationship with Christ and his church, and so we have a way of explaining why marriage feels so validating: it is an echo of Christ’s justification of his church, his body. But it is only an echo, because unlike Christ, ‘No human relationship can bear the burden of godhood, and the attempt has to take its toll on some way on both parties.’ If you look to any other person to give your life justification and meaning, you will eventually resent them and leave disillusioned. Yet this myth, this vision of fullness, continues to be one of the most enduring in the West. And we have seen this myth repeated in a million stories, so that no matter how many times we personally experience its emptiness, we still find it alluring.”
Alan Noble Disruptive Witness
“All this is the result of your imprudence and stupidity.”
A letter from Pope Gregory II to Emperor Leo III in 727 AD excerpted in Brian Tierney, The Crisis of Church & State 1050-1300 [also from my “Don’t mince words, Bones” file]
“For as long as people have been writing, there have been other people that want to prevent that writing from reaching the public. Around 600BC King Jehoiakim of Judah burnt a scroll containing a prophecy he did not like. Plato supposedly loathed work by Democritus, another philosopher, and sought to have it destroyed. (Ironically in his dialogues he warns of ‘the danger of becoming misologists’—ie, people who hate reasoning or ideas.)”
Rachel Lloyd, “Deputy culture editor” in “The Economist this weekend” email Feb. 22, 2025 [the big point here being the word “misologist”].
“The strong minded governor of Massachusetts, William Shirley, took to emulating Cato about Carthage: ‘Delenda est Canada’ (Canada must be destroyed).”
This re the New France militia in the War of the Austrian Succession, in Conrad Black Rise to Greatness: The History of Canada from the Vikings to the Present
“I have a pretty worrying hunch that despite all the talk of Team Canada and visits to D.C., our premiers aren’t doing much to get this country battle ready. Too many of them, after a career in Canadian politics, are probably too stuck in their ways of ‘the announcement is the plan.’”
Matt Gurney in The Line Feb. 13, 2025 [https://www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurney-i-hereby-propose-the]. [I emailed him to ask if it was original and he replied “I think it’s original to me” but added that it had evolved from conversations with his colleagues, especially Jen Gerson]
“Compaq FAQ: Where do I find the ‘Any’ key on my keyboard? (FAQ2859) The term ‘any key’ does not refer to a particular key on the keyboard. It simply means to strike any one of the keys on your keyboard or handheld screen.”
http://web14.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859 as of Jan. 6, 2002, forwarded by a suitably appalled friend