“in order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any rate, should be settled for us without our permission. If we wish life to be a system, this may be a nuisance; but if we wish it to be a drama, it is an essential…. A man has control over many things in his life; he has control over enough things to be the hero of a novel. But if he had control over everything, there would be so much hero that there would be no novel. And the reason why the lives of the rich are at bottom so tame and uneventful is simply that they can choose the events…. It is vain for the supercilious moderns to talk of being in uncongenial surroundings. To be in a romance is to be in uncongenial surroundings…. the moderns, who imagine that romance would exist most perfectly in a complete state of what they call liberty…. They say they wish to be, as strong as the universe, but they really wish the whole universe as weak as themselves.”

G.K. Chesterton Heretics

This week I joined The Hon. Tony Clement on his “Boom and Bust” show to discuss Remembrance Day in light of ominous current developments including the Hamas terrorist assault on Israel.

“Bitesized analysis, curated daily/ Busy schedule? The Economist app offers fast, digestible insights in a range of formats to suit you. Head to the Home section for a daily selection of our best analysis – all curated by senior editors.”

Email teaser from The Economist January 13, 2023 [prompting a cry of “Et tu, Economist?” not only over the pandering dumbing down/speeding up busy-lifestyle but also that pretentious “curated” – there was a time when that publication eschewed dumbing down and trendy fatuities].

“We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, in Memphis, Tenn., April 3, 1968 [the day before he was assassinated] quoted by Jamil Jivani in National Post January 17, 2023

In my latest Dorchester Review article I say Mark Carney would make our politics worse not better.

In my latest Epoch Times column I condemn the edict that military chaplains should not pray to God rather than the state on November 11.

“To have a passing fever, or the smallpox is nothing, but to be oppressed by a feeling of faintness for whole years, to see all one’s relish for things destroyed, to have yet enough life to want to enjoy it but too little strength to do so, to become useless and unbearable to oneself, to die little by little, that is what I have suffered, and what has been more cruel than all my other trials.”

Voltaire, quoted in Cleveland Bruce Chase The Young Voltaire [in his first letter on returning to France from a youthful trip to England where he learned much but found the climate horrible]

“Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending.”

Carl Bard, quoted by Jeff Hayden on Inc. online (www.inc.com/jeff-haden/top-350-inspiring-motivational-quotes-to-tweet-and-share.html)