“To have a passing fever, or the smallpox is nothing, but to be oppressed by a feeling of faintness for whole years, to see all one’s relish for things destroyed, to have yet enough life to want to enjoy it but too little strength to do so, to become useless and unbearable to oneself, to die little by little, that is what I have suffered, and what has been more cruel than all my other trials.”

Voltaire, quoted in Cleveland Bruce Chase The Young Voltaire [in his first letter on returning to France from a youthful trip to England where he learned much but found the climate horrible]

“Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending.”

Carl Bard, quoted by Jeff Hayden on Inc. online (www.inc.com/jeff-haden/top-350-inspiring-motivational-quotes-to-tweet-and-share.html)

“Kierkegaard talks about the idea of being a knight of faith, and he is classed with the Christian existentialists as a consequence of the practicalities of his view. He basically puts forward a proposition that I think is akin to the proposition that undergirds marriage, which is: You cannot find out whether creation is good or evil without being all in on your bet, just like you cannot be married without saying, ‘I am shackling myself to you and I am not going to run away no matter what, so we better get to know each other and get along because this is how it is going to be.’ Without that, you cannot be deeply committed enough to the marriage to make it work. So it seems to me on the forefront of faith, you have to act in the world with courageous trust – not naïve trust, but courageous trust – in the potential goodness of being in order to actually discover whether or not that faith is justified. And that is partly why it is faith; you have to put the cart before the horse. You cannot wait around.”

Jordan Peterson “Mondays of Meaning – March 20th 2023”

In my latest National Post column I describe the weird combination of tedium and fury induced by listening to members of the UN special committee for blaming Israel for all problems in the Mideast droning on.

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”

Henry Ford, cited as standalone “WORDS OF WISDOM” in Epoch Times email teaser March 18, 2023

“If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”

Thomas J. Watson, quoted by Jeff Hayden on Inc. online (www.inc.com/jeff-haden/top-350-inspiring-motivational-quotes-to-tweet-and-share.html)

“can the view that all religions are equivalent really be taken seriously? If such is the case, how should one explain that, on their occasion of the rebuilding of the main Aztec temple in 1487, more than 20,000 people were bled to death over four days on the altars of Tenochtitlan, in the upper Mexico valley, as human sacrifices to the sun god?”

Richard Bastien in Convivium Vol. 2 #7 (April-May 2013)

“‘Hermit hoar, in solemn cell,/ Wearing out life’s evening grey:/ Smite thy bosom, sage, and tell,/ What is bliss? and which the way?/ Thus I spoke; and speaking sigh’d;/ – scarce repressed the starting tear; – When the smiling sage reply’d – Come, my lad, and drink some beer.’”

Samuel Johnson, cited in D.J. Enright’s introduction to Johnson The History of Rasselas