“Keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Start with typewriters.”
Frank Lloyd Wright, quote in “Random Foolish Quotations” in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 7 # 7 (June 2004)
“Every morning, I put on a pair of rubber boots, and not just because they are stylish.”
Letter from Fred Olthius, a hog farmer, in Maclean’s June 24, 1996, complaining about people who consider workfare demeaning.
In my latest, and last, piece for Mercator I celebrate its mission while lamenting its passing, victim of an age far too prone to take frivolous things seriously and ignore the eternal verities. But I urge everyone to do the reverse.
“Truth is not a lifestyle choice”
Me July 1, 2024 [prompted by an ICMDA email subject line that day “The Surprising rebirth of belief in God”]
“Stupidity gets up early in the morning.”
Someone named Karl Kraus, quoted (apparently from a wire story) in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 # 6 (April/May 2001)
“There are certain birds, like the kite and the crow, that people disregard entirely and would never bother to criticize; it is precisely because the uguisu is usually held in such high regard that people find fault with it when they can.”
Sei Shonagon The Pillow Book
“what St. John Paul II reminded us so many years ago: that ‘There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us … on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit … This is our faith. This is our witness before the world.’”
Eric de Meuse in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #4 (March/April 2024)
“Angry people want you to see how powerful they are. Loving people want you to see how powerful you are.”
Chief Red Eagle, quoted in an email from a friend July 6, 2024 without further attribution [but it is widely available online and it seems that he's a real person who really did say it, William Weatherford/Red Eagle being born around 1765 (or 1780 or 1781), dying in 1824, and being a mixed-race Creek who fought American forces but was also a significant slaveholder in Alabama].