"Abandon all hopelessness, ye who enter here" Dale Ahlquist opening the 2006 Chesterton Conference in St. Paul, MN
In my latest National Post column I argue that while history doesn't repeat, its lessons do... especially for those not paying attention. (Due to an editing mishap, at the end of the 3rd paragraph, between the sentence ending "great and small." and the one beginning "Regrettably, as with...", the sentence "But I am sure we’re not going to fight World War One again." was omitted.)
"What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know." St. Augustine, quoted in Jon Winokur, Zen To Go
"Wish not so much to live long as to live well." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
"Sam Spade: Ten thousand? We were talking about a lot more money than this. Kasper Gutman: Yes, sir, we were, but this is genuine coin of the realm. With a dollar of this, you can buy ten dollars of talk." The Maltese Falcon
"And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger." Luke 2:16
"anyone who, walking through the streets at night, hears the bells begin suddenly to laugh and thunder upon Christmas Eve will find it difficult to persuade himself that something of thrilling import to humanity has not at that moment occurred." G.K. Chesterton, "Christmas Day," reprinted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 6 #3 (December 2002)
In my latest National Post column I look back at the year now ending and say we can be more intelligent and decent in the next one.