“Constantine, sometimes (Heaven knows why) called Constantine the Great, was emperor.”
Hendrik Willem van Loon The Story of Mankind
“Everyone has a grievance. These days soliciters are offended if you merely politely decline to talk with them. Person at the door: Are you J. Budziszewski? Me: Who are you? Person: Are you J. Budziszewski? Me: Who are you? Person: Do you have such-and-such in your house? Me: Are you selling something? Person: Do you have such-and-such in your house? Me: Are you selling something? Person: [Long pause.] Not necessarily. Me: Thank you. I’m not interested. [I quietly close the door.] - I can understand why the soliciter was frustrated. It’s harder to make a sale when you are forced to begin by saying that you want to. What I don’t understand is why she was offended. This is my house.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” April 17, 2023 [https://undergroundthomist.org/antipasto]
In my latest Epoch Times column I say the real scandal in our government falsely claiming to be helping the U.S. and Britain against Iranian-backed Islamist pirates isn’t that they’re lying, it’s that they’re deluded.
“a social worker pointedly said: ‘Your problem is you want to play all of the strings of your violin at once.’ These words haunt me, and it took years to come to terms with the truth…”
Shelley Page in Ottawa Citizen Citizen’s Weekly March 16, 2003
“Never follow rabbit tracks when you are fighting elephants.”
Sen. Gerry St. Germain quoted in Globe & Mail March 22, 2004
“It was a wise instinct by which heaven was symbolized by wings that are free as the wind, and hell symbolized by chains.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News February 15, 1930, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 2 (Nov.-Dec. 2022)
“Unless there is a good reason for its being there, do not inject opinion into a piece of writing. We all have opinions about almost everything, and the temptation to toss them in is great. To air one’s views gratuitously, however, is to imply that the demand for them is brisk, which may not be the case…”
William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White Elements of Style [I totally disagree; all writing is an attempt to persuade someone of a point of view.]
In my latest National Post column I argue that the same libertarian-libertine qualities that made social media appealing across normal partisan lines, and addictive, are now making them hugely and rightly unpopular and we must make the platforms legally “publishers” to put a stop to the raging indecency.