"Pessimism, you know, is often a form of vanity."

Sandy Arbuthnot in John Buchan The Three Hostages

"to have any meaningful 'self-esteem' one must have a meaningful sense of self. An 'itch and scratch' existence is simply not adequate."

Iain Benson in the Executive Summary to Kathleen M. Gow, "Making a God of Self-esteem: The Tyranny of Misdirected Sentiment," CRPP Discussion Paper 4

"Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight/ But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right"

Hilaire Belloc, "The Pacifist"
 

"If you are still with me at this point, it can only be because you are a serious drinker of being…"

Robert Capon The Supper of the Lamb

In my latest National Post column I say the mass shooting at a Texas church does not validate arguments for gun control.

My latest Looniepolitics column says the surprising defeat of Montreal mayor Denis Coderre should have us paying more attention to Canada's cities.

"Generally speaking, we do not realize a problem of the past till we realize it as a problem of the present, and even of the future."

G.K. Chesterton, “The Age of Chaucer,” in Chaucer, quoted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 7 #5 (March 2004)

"you cannot build prescriptions on mere knowledge of positive facts, however systematized and comprehensive. You need a goal as well... it is all very well to know how the world works... But unless you have some test whereby you can distinguish good from bad, desirable consequences from undesirable, you are without an essential constituent of a theory of policy. You are like the captain of a ship equipped with charts and compasses and all the means of propulsion and steering, but without an assigned destination. A theory of economic policy, in the sense of a body of precepts for action, must take its ultimate criterion from outside economics."

Lionel Robbins The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy pp. 176-77.