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

"A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos."

G.K. Chesterton "The Book of Job," reprinted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 # 4 (Jan./Feb. 2001)

"Complexity is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

John Gross of the New York Times, quoted by John O'Sullivan in National Review December 25, 1995 (with specific reference to inherent tendency of bad theories to be complex)

"The two distinctive doctrines of Christianity are Original Sin and Salvation, the very bad news that no one else dares tell us and the very good news that no one else has a right to tell us."

Peter Kreeft Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensées Edited, Outlined & Explained

"That’s the whole story of pitching. Keep your life and your pitching real simple, and you’ll get along."

286-game winner Robin Roberts quoted in John Thorn and John Holway The Pitcher