Words Worth Noting - October 27, 2023

“‘Hermit hoar, in solemn cell,/ Wearing out life’s evening grey:/ Smite thy bosom, sage, and tell,/ What is bliss? and which the way?/ Thus I spoke; and speaking sigh’d;/ – scarce repressed the starting tear; – When the smiling sage reply’d – Come, my lad, and drink some beer.’”

Samuel Johnson, cited in D.J. Enright’s introduction to Johnson The History of Rasselas

Words Worth Noting - October 22, 2023

“I say you cannot really understand any myths till you have found that one of them is not a myth. Turnip ghosts mean nothing if there are not real ghosts. Forged bank-notes mean nothing if there are no real bank-notes. Heathen gods mean nothing, and must always mean nothing, to those of us that deny the Christian God.”

GKC, “The Priest of Spring,” in Alberto Manguel, ed., On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton