“peaceful anarchy, than which nothing could be more impossible, given human nature as it is.”

Mortimer J. Adler Ten Philosophical Mistakes

“I would not breed from this officer”

One of several apparently authentic British military Officer Fitness Reports quoted by Steve Madely in Ottawa Sun February 10, 1999

“a lion can spot a limp.”

Quoted in an email from a reader this fall, on the subject of foreign policy but sourced to “something I heard an ex-convict say about the danger of exhibiting weakness in prison.”

In my latest Epoch Times column, I say recent revelations about national security breaches and governmental nonchalance ought to worry Canadians a lot more than they apparently do.

“After my warning order to the company that we would be moving off in a couple of hours I said that I was going to the communion service first. I set off by myself. Half-way there, I looked back to see if anyone else was coming and found to my surprise that virtually the whole company was following me in single file.”

My high school English teacher Stewart Bull, then a major and company commander with the Essex Scottish in Normandy in July 1944 (from his unpublished memoir Happy Warrior: Adventures in the Classroom).

In my latest National Post column I say John Le Carré’s novels were morally rotten and dangerous in practice.

In my latest National Post column I say the outrageous way the Chinese government speaks about the outrageous things it does is a red flag about the outrageous way it thinks.

“Political conflict, domestic or international, is rooted in the nature of man. It is a reflection of his finitude, his moral weakness, and his irrationality.”

Ernest W. Lefever Ethics and United States Foreign Policy