“It is natural to civilised man to go back upon his past, and to be grateful for all profit he can gain from the study of his own development. So we may be certain that the claim of Greece and Rome to our eternal gratitude will never cease to be asserted, and their right to teach us still what we could have learnt nowhere else will never be successfully disputed.”
W. Warde Fowler Rome (written November 1911)
“Words cannot express how deeply I regret the Annexation of Schleswig-Holstein.”
Florence King in National Review July 14 1997 (re politicians' fatuous habit of apologizing for historical deeds they had nothing to do with)
“Leaders have two characteristics: (1) they are going somewhere; (2) they can persuade others to go with them.”
D.P. Diffiné, “The 1993 American Incentive System Almanac”.
"This is not to say that there may not be a case in justice for correcting positions which have been determined by earlier unjust acts or institutions. But unless such injustice is clear and recent, it will generally be impractical to correct it. It will on the whole seem preferable to accept the given position as due to accident and simply from the present onwards to refrain from any measures aiming at benefiting particular individuals or groups."
Friedrich Hayek in Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 2
"The king [Hrolf, to Bodvar] said, 'I knew when you came here that few would be your equal, but it seems to me that your finest achievement is that you have made Hott into another champion. He was previously thought to be a man in whom there was little probability of much luck.'"
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
In my latest National Post column I ask how Canadians are meant to understand their system of government when party leaders like Elizabeth May clearly don't.