“No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.”

Elizabeth Bowen, quoted in Jon Winokur Zen to Go

“History has always, and properly, been regarded as ‘the school of princes’. We should not hesitate – we should be eager – to make it the school of peoples.”

Paul Johnson The Offshore Islanders

In my latest National Post column I say that press releases that declare themselves important reveal themselves as self-important.

“The anointed don’t like to talk about painful trade-offs. They like to talk about happy ‘solutions’ that get rid of the whole problem - at least in their imagination.”

Thomas Sowell Is Reality Optional?

“brilliant, but not correct.”

Quoted in Horace Porter Campaigning with Grant as “what Cuvier said of the French Academy’s definition of a crab”.

In my latest Epoch Times column I write that China’s real environmental record shows how inefficient as well as dangerous dictatorships are. Far from being able to “turn on a dime” to green their economy or do any other praiseworthy thing, they suppress information, ignore costs, and lumber about doing wasteful harm.

“Common sense is the little man in the grey suit who never makes a mistake in addition. But it’s always someone else’s money he’s adding up.”

“Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), American novelist” quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail Jan. 11, 2012