"[P]atience is a necessary ingredient of genius." Benjamin Disraeli, quoted by Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street
"Always put the spiritual things first." G.K. Chesterton in "Topsy-Turvy" in Tremendous Trifles, quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 10 #3 (December 2006)
On the eve of tomorrow's anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge it's good to see so much remembrance including the outstanding front portion of today's National Post. It was a pivotal Allied victory in the First World War partly for strategic reasons, partly for tactical ones and partly for psychological ones given how bleak things looked in the spring of 1917. It wasn't just important for Canada's sense of nationhood. The First World War, for all its horrors, was a necessary struggle for freedom and it was very important that the Allies won even if the victory was in significant measure squandered over the next two decades.
A reminder as the anniversary approaches that my documentary The Great War Remembered, which tries to explain and also to vindicate the war despite everything, is available free on YouTube.
"'Tasteful' does not begin to describe it." Dave Barry in The Ottawa Citizen June 19, 2004 [from my cherished compilation of hidden insults; the specific reference was competitors in the human-powered aircraft "Flugtag" competition in Miami whose contraption intentionally resembled a giant cow giving birth - I am not making that up]
In my latest National Post column I question the coincidence of Jordan Peterson being suddenly refused a federal government grant after he questioned radical gender orthodoxy.
"This is no easy mission. But its difficulty is not our concern; we did not create the mission, and we cannot change it. The word 'mission' derives from the Latin root missus – which means 'sent.' We have been sent – to seek God, study the world, and serve humanity." Fr. John Jenkins re what the university should be in his inaugural address as president of Notre Dame University, quoted by Richard John Neuhaus in First Things December 2005
"Shortly before his death in the 1920s, Mr. [former French Premier Georges] Clemenceau discussed the question of guilt over the [First World] war’s outbreak with a representative of Germany’s Weimar Republic. 'What, in your opinion, will future historians think of this controversial issue?' the representative asked. 'This I do not know,' Mr. Clemenceau replied. 'But I know for certain that they will not say Belgium invaded Germany.'" Letter from David Dear, Edmonton, in Globe & Mail July 23 1996