"It is no more admirable to have valuable suggestions to make and not put them into circulation than it is to have a valuable coin of the realm and keep it stuffed into a greasy old stocking."
G.K. Chesterton, “The Walking Paradox,” in Alberto Manguel, ed., On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton
"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."
G. K. Chesterton, quoted by Jeff Hayden on Inc. online (www.inc.com/jeff-haden/top-350-inspiring-motivational-quotes-to-tweet-and-share.html) them, but most important, use them to motivate you to reach the heights you dream of reaching.”
"You say you want man to be to himself what God has been to man. But what God has been to man is man’s absolute superior, and man cannot be his own superior…. So when you say you want man to be to himself what God has been to man hitherto, you mean you want some men to be to other men what God has been to man. You want some men to be the absolute superiors of others. I assume that you want to be in the former group and not in the latter."
J. Budziszewski in What We Can’t Not Know [part of his Platonic dialogue with a skeptic].
"When Danish dramatist and poet Baron Ludwig Holbert (1684-1754) was asked by a scoffer 'Do you call that thing on your head a hat?' he replied: 'Do you call that thing under your hat a head?'"
"Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe and Mail November 17, 2003 p. A14.
"'Don’t you swelter all day in the sun?’ Epictetus asked rhetorically [comparing watching the logistically nightmarish ancient Olympic games to life generally]. 'Aren’t you jammed in with the crowds? Isn’t it hard to get a bath? Aren’t you soaked to the bone whenever it rains? Don’t the din and the shouting and the petty annoyances drive you completely mad? But of course you put up with it all because it’s an unforgettable spectacle.'"
Tony Perrottet, author of The Naked Olympics, in Ottawa Citizen July 17, 2004
In my latest National Post column I say the Prime Minister's insistence on the Newspeak term "peoplekind" was neither a joke nor innocent.
"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he does not know more."
William Cowper
"Of course we are lone survivors, of course the past that is our lives is at the bottom of an abyss - if the abyss has any bottom; of course, too, there’s no use talking unless one particularly wants to. But... one can, strange to say, still want to - ... You see I still, in presence of life (or of what you deny to be such,) have reactions - as many as possible..."
Henry James in a letter to Henry Adams near end of both their lives, quoted in The New Republic October 16, 1989