“Even if it were true that a hundred persons would experience more pleasure from torturing one person than that person would experience pain (in some dreadful utilitarian calculus), such an action would be an abomination. The person is never subordinate to the common good in an instrumental way. Persons are not means but ends, because of the God in Whom they live and Who lives in them.”
Michael Novak, Free Persons and the Common Good
In my latest National Post column I contemplate the odd spectacle of Gerald Butts fleeing a burning PMO denying there’s a fire.
“For Fools Admire, but Men of Sense Approve”
Alexander Pope “An Essay on Criticism” in Essay on Man and Other Poems
“I’m the guy who goes out in a rowboat after Moby Dick and brings along the tartar sauce.”
J.C. Watts of the Ottawa Rough Riders before the 1981 Grey Cup, quoted in Ottawa Citizen Dec. 20, 1998
“It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.”
John Adams in “Thoughts on Government, 1776” quoted by The Federalist Patriot “Founders' Quote Daily” (federalist.com) Nov. 21, 2005
“A cannibal is someone who gets fed up with people.”
#9 in “Gilbert’s Top 10 More Bad Puns” in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 6 #7 (June 2003)