“In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

Thomas Jefferson, in a 1787 letter to his orphan nephew Peter Carr, quoted in William Bennett The Book of Virtues

“For to feel oneself a martyr, as everybody knows, is a pleasurable thing, and the true tragedy of my position was that I had passed that stage. I had enjoyed what sweets it had to offer in ever dwindling degree since the middle of August…”

Erskine Childers The Riddle of the Sands

“What the Imagination seizes as Beauty must be Truth…”

John Keats, quoted in I.A. Richards Principles of Literary Criticism

In my latest Loonie Politics column I advocate thinking about things you don’t want to think about, from Putin’s motives to Xi Jinping’s ideology to James Burnham’s warning about the “Suicide of the West”.

“.... and when the patient loves his illness, what pain he has to suffer when he is cured!”

Infanta, in Pierre Corneille The Cid II.5.

“‘What does my life matter? I just want to be faithful, to the end, to the child I used to be.’”

Georges Bernanos (1888-1948) quoted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 3 #5 (March 2000)

“This means open war between men, in which everyone is obliged to take sides, either with the dogmatists or with the sceptics, because anyone who imagines he can stay neutral is a sceptic par excellence.”

Blaise Pascal Pensées

“The object of all human life is play. I for one wish we did not have to fritter away time on frivolous things, like lectures and literature, the time we might have given to serious, solid and constructive work like cutting out cardboard figures and pasting colored tinsel upon them.”

G.K. Chesterton quoted by Robert Moore-Jumonville in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 3 #5 (March 2000)