"As Mr. Pond knows, the last lesson of the wise man is that the fool is sometimes right."

Steve Miller in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 9 #6

In my latest National Post column I ask why, when budget projections are so reliably wrong, including this year's way-off deficit predictions and apparently next year's too, we nod solemnly at each year's pseudo-sophisticated decimal points and econometric analyses.

 "I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid."

Terry Bradshaw, quoted in Gilbert! magazine Jan.-Feb. 2002

William "Blake could do so many things. Why is it that he could do none of them quite right?"

G.K. Chesterton, quoted by Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 5 # 3 (December 2001)

"If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?"

Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Paine, date unknown, according to The Patriot Post Founders’ Quote Daily March 24, 2008 from Federalist.com

"It’s kind of like an elephant in a bathtub: If you don’t see it at first glance, chances are you never will."

Sen. Fred Thompson quoted by Jay Nordlinger in National Review May 17, 1999 [as it happens I don't agree with the point Thompson was making but it's a great metaphor] 

"If Your Life Was a Business, Would You Invest in It?"

The title of a book by John Eckblad and David Kiel, mentioned by Susan Riley in Ottawa Citizen Dec. 15, 2004

In my latest National Post column I urge politicians to imagine a list of really bad headlines about themselves and then be careful never to do anything that would cause one of those headlines to appear if it got found out.