“1. The whole management and direction of human life depends upon the question whether or not there is a God and a future state of human existence. If there is a God, but no future state, God is nothing to us. If there is a future state, but no God, we can form no rational guess about the future state. 2. If there is no God and no future state, reasonable men will regulate their conduct either by inclination or by common utilitarianism. 3. If there is a God and a future state, rational men will regulate their conduct by a wider kind of utilitarianism. 4. By whatever rule they regulate their conduct, no room is left for any rational enthusiasm for the order of ideas hinted at by the phrase ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’…” James Fitzjames Stephen in Liberty Equality Fraternity
“It’s not an optical illusion. It just looks like one.” “Top 20 Internet Tag Lines” in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 4 #8 (July/August 2001)
“However mean or inconsiderable the act, there is something in the well doing of it, which has fellowship with the noblest forms of manly virtue...” John Ruskin in The Seven Lamps of Architecture
My latest for The Rebel: The enormous and enduring success of the novel Black Beauty, published on Nov. 24 of 1877, in stirring up opposition to cruelty to animals underlines the late Andrew Breitbart's maxim that politics is downstream of culture. If we want to make a difference, we must not forget it.
The audio-only version is available here: [podcast title="Rebel, November 24"]http://www.thejohnrobson.com/podcast/John2016/November/161124Rebel.mp3[/podcast]
The audio-only version is available here: [podcast title="Ask the Professor, November 24"]http://www.thejohnrobson.com/podcast/John2016/November/Ask_Professor_64.mp3[/podcast]
“If you [historians] have no more to tell us than that one barbarian succeeded another on the banks of the Oxus or Ixartes, what use are you to the public?” Voltaire
“There is no such thing as a gay book on political economy for reading in a hammock.” Stephen Leacock in Social Criticism: The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice and Other Essays
In my latest National Post column I ask why our justice system worries more about hurt feelings than speedy trials for serious crimes.