In my latest National Post column I say people enjoy the comforting blanket of political make-believe yet crave truth when reality intrudes.
"Every man desires to obtain additional wealth with as little sacrifice as possible."
Nassau Senior in 1836, quoted by Stephen Leacock in "What is Left of Adam Smith?" in On the Front Line of Life
In my latest National Post column I caution aboriginal militants against putting forward apparently insatiable demands in an insensitive, arrogant tone.
In my latest National Post column I say the horrific fire in London's Grenfell Tower happening in public housing is a powerful warning against putting too much faith in government.
“It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people cant be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it."
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in Cormac McCarthy No Country for Old Men
“Words cannot express how deeply I regret the Annexation of Schleswig-Holstein.”
Florence King in National Review July 14 1997 (re politicians' fatuous habit of apologizing for historical deeds they had nothing to do with)
“Leaders have two characteristics: (1) they are going somewhere; (2) they can persuade others to go with them.”
D.P. Diffiné, “The 1993 American Incentive System Almanac”.
"the one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God’s paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle – and not lose it."
G.K. Chesterton "Time’s Abstract and Brief Chronicle" according to Dale Ahlquist. It was paraphrased by Kara Kelley in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 8 #5 (March-April 2005) as "The most romantic thing in the world is to fight a losing battle, and not lose." Which is almost the only case I know of where somebody rephrased Chesterton and may have improved him.