“But if ‘every man,’ as it has been written, ‘holds confined within him a mad-man,’ what must every Society do; - Society, which in its commonest state is called ‘the standing miracle of this world’! ‘Without such Earth-rind of Habit,’ continues our Author, ‘call it System of Habits, in a word, fixed ways of acting and believing, - Society would not exist at all.’”
Thomas Carlyle The French Revolution
In my latest National Post column I call Erin O’Toole’s flipflop on gun control a test case of whether populism, as one way of making the electoral system more responsive to popular wishes, actually brings better or more honest policy.
“When you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Winston Churchill, quoted in William D. Gairdner The Trouble With Democracy
“Now that God is dead, however, or at least comatose”
Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic Monthly March 2004
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say it’s not surprising for an unprincipled Red Tory to join in the orgy of vote-buying at the expense of the last vestige of conservatism. But it won’t end well for the nation.
“To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child.”
Cicero, quoted in Andrew Nikiforuk School's Out: The Catastrophe in Public Education
In my latest National Post column I say the worst thing about the Liberals’ doctored video showing Erin O’Toole supporting more private options in health care is that there’s no way it could possibly be true.
“When I find myself depressed over present conditions, I can, within one hour, banish worry and turn myself into a shouting optimist. Here is how I do it. I enter my library, close my eyes, and walk to certain shelves containing only books on history. With my eyes still shut, I reach for a book, not knowing whether I am picking up Prescott's Conquest of Mexico or Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars. With my eyes still closed, I opened the book at random. I then open my eyes and read for an hour; and the more I read, the more sharply I realize that the world has always been in the throes of agony, that civilization has always been tottering on the brink. The pages of history fairly shriek with tragic tales of war, famine, poverty, pestilence, and man's inhumanity to man. After reading history for an hour, I realize that bad as conditions are now, they are infinitely better than they used to be. This enables me to see and face my present troubles in their proper perspective as well as to realize that the world as a whole is constantly growing better.”
“’I Can Turn Myself Into A Shouting Optimist Within An Hour’ by Roger W. Babson Famous Economist, Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts” in Dale Carnegie How to Stop Worrying and Start Living