“We have, indeed, but to glance at the biographies of great men to find that the most distinguished inventors, artists, thinkers, and workers of all kinds, owe their success, in a great measure, to their indefatigable industry and application…. Hence it happens that the men who have most moved the world, have not been so much men of genius, strictly so called, as men of intense mediocre abilities, and untiring perseverance… ‘Alas!’ said a widow, speaking of her brilliant but careless son, ‘he has not the gift of continuance.’ Wanting in perseverance, such volatile natures are outstripped in the race of life by the diligent and even the dull. ‘Che va piano, va longano, e va lontano,’ says the Italian proverb: Who goes slowly, goes long, and goes far.”

Samuel Smiles Self-Help

“We cannot describe mind in terms of matter; if only for the reason that we cannot even perceive matter except by mind.”

G.K. Chesterton “The Route of Reason” in Where Are The Dead? quoted in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 # 4 (March-April 2022)

“More than 1,500 pieces of graffiti were preserved in Pompeii when that Roman city was buried in volcanic ash 1,922 years ago. They include: ‘Aufidius was here.’ ‘Marcus loves Spendusa.’ ‘I am amazed, O wall, that you have not collapsed and fallen, since you must bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers.’ Source: The Washington Post.”

Globe & Mail July 12, 2001 p. A16

On Monday I spoke to the Royal Canadian Military Institute about a number of surprises regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some of which should not have been surprising.

“principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth.”

Jonathan Swift quoted by Rondi Adamson in Ottawa Citizen December 16, 2001

“But history is no respecter of Congresses. For some reason or other (it may be an historical law, which thus far has escaped the attention of the scholars) ‘nations’ seemed to be necessary for the orderly development of human society and the attempt to stem this tide [post-1815] was quite as unsuccessful as the Metternichian effort to prevent people from thinking.”

Hendrik Van Loon The Story of Mankind

“The physics of fire ant rafts could help engineers design swarming robots”

Headline on post at Watts Up With That March 6, 2022 [https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/06/the-physics-of-fire-ant-rafts-could-help-engineers-design-swarming-robots/] and press release on EurekAlert! March 2, 2022 [https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/945224] – I quote it not because I doubt it but because to me in conjures up images not of a bright future but of “Leiningen Versus the Ants”.

In my latest Epoch Times column I contrast our supposed new strategy for dealing with Communist China’s aggression with the iconic American Cold War strategy document NSC-68 and ours comes off looking mentally, verbally and morally feeble.