"What’s the point of being a hedonist if you’re not having a good time?"

Lily Tomlin, Search for Signs of Intelligent Life, quoted in The New Republic Oct. 7, 1991

"We should always endeavour to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth."

G.K. Chesterton, The Apostle and the Wild Ducks, quoted in Dale Ahlquist and Peter Floriani Chesterton University Student Handbook.

In my latest National Post column I say the solution to mean-spirited echo chambers and fake news online is in the mirror.

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish."

Euripides
 

"Pessimism, you know, is often a form of vanity."

Sandy Arbuthnot in John Buchan The Three Hostages

"to have any meaningful 'self-esteem' one must have a meaningful sense of self. An 'itch and scratch' existence is simply not adequate."

Iain Benson in the Executive Summary to Kathleen M. Gow, "Making a God of Self-esteem: The Tyranny of Misdirected Sentiment," CRPP Discussion Paper 4

"If you are still with me at this point, it can only be because you are a serious drinker of being…"

Robert Capon The Supper of the Lamb

"Thinking is loyalty to truth."

G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News May 27, 2011, quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 16 #4 (Jan.-Feb. 2013)