In my latest National Post column I warn that the largest lesson of the Christine Blasey Ford-Brett Kavanaugh confrontation could easily be seen as: Avoid the opposite sex entirely.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say, and then don't say it."
Sam Levenson, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe & Mail August 25, 2010
In my latest National Post column I say the Ottawa tornado is a worrying reminder of how fragile our modern high-tech just-in-time way of life really is.
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
Often attributed to Immanuel Kant but appears to be from Will Durant, part of Durant's effort to explain Kant's thought (whatever the merits of his analysis, Kant's often impenetrable prose style did not lend itself to bon mots)
"The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius. Talent is a docile creature. It bows its head meekly while the world slips the collar over it... It draws its load cheerfully, and is patient of the bit and of the whip. But genius is always impatient of its harness; its wild blood makes it hard to train."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe & Mail December 4, 2001
"'Pah!' snarled Nikabrik. 'You badgers would have us wait till the sky falls and we can all catch larks.'"
C.S. Lewis Prince Caspian
"There’s an ancient saying: 'The world would be a clean place if we each swept in front of our own doorsteps.'"
Ottawa psychotherapist Dawn Brown quoted by Linda Mondoux in Ottawa Citizen November 22, 2006
“To question a wise man is the beginning of wisdom.”
“German proverb” e-mailed to me without attribution