“My [Houyhnhnm] master … said, a fancy would sometimes take a Yahoo to retire into a corner, to lie down, and howl, and groan, and spurn away all that came near him, although he were young and fat, wanted neither food nor water, nor did the servant imagine what could possibly ail him. And the only remedy they found was, to set him to hard work, after which he would infallibly come to himself. To this I was silent out of partiality to my own kind; yet here I could plainly discover the true seeds of spleen, which only seizes on the lazy, the luxurious, and the rich; who, if they were forced to undergo the same regimen, I would undertake for the cure.”

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

Jim Ryun, in another from Jeff Hayden on Inc. online (www.inc.com/jeff-haden/top-350-inspiring-motivational-quotes-to-tweet-and-share.html)

“You assume that the defining characteristic of a religion is that it is a religion. No. The defining characteristic of a religion is whether it is right or wrong.”

Michael Coren (back when he was sensible) in an e-mail debate with Karen Selick in Western Standard October 25, 2004.

“A hive of passivity.”

Me again, on laziness, from September 17, 2004

In my latest Loonie Politics column I praise John Tory for finding the honour to resign as mayor of Toronto, and mean it the second time, instead of denying that character had any relevance to politics like most of those commenting on the affair or whispering or yelling in his ear

“But my time and labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another.”

Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe

“A general learns lessons. I’m not sure that a politician does. Or that a people does.”

Maj.-Gen Chris Vokes, My Story

“The only reason we don’t adopt an open-ended utility function is because of the law St. Paul says is written on the human heart. But it’s a good reason; otherwise there’d only be varying degrees of risk-aversion rather than deplorable timidity and rashness and between them praiseworthy courage. Note also that peaceniks whose recommendations lead to the tyrant’s victory cannot be declared to be mistaken if we adopt an open-ended utility function; they merely reveal themselves to be masochists. But it is surely no coincidence that abandoning sincere church attendance leads to Anthony de Jasay’s consent-driven Leviathan; it’s only if he takes God seriously that homo economicus doesn’t rent seek. Aristotle wanted the state to be concerned with the good life because he didn’t conceive of separating Caesar from God; homo economicus now wants the same, except his good life is explicitly hedonist so he wants boodle.”

Another of mine, from April 21, 2003 [and very possibly of interest only to economists, or not even to them].