“‘The original Latin word [from which distraction is derived] does not mean relaxation; it means being torn asunder as by wild horses. The original Greek word, which corresponds to it, is used in the text which says that Judas burst asunder in the midst.’”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News July 16, 1910, quoted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 6 #3 (December 2002)
“It will be a comfort to me all my life to know that the scientist and the materialist have not the last word: that Darwin and [Herbert] Spencer undermining ancestral beliefs stand themselves on a foundation of sand; of gigantic assumptions and irreconcilable contradictions an inch below the surface”.
C.S. Lewis to “Albert” on accepting an English fellowship and abandoning philosophy with some relief as relentlessly depressing skepticism, quoted in Harry Lee Poe The Making of C.S. Lewis
“Colin O’Scopie, proctologist”
Me Feb. 13, 2024 [invented not a real person].
In the Western Standard, on behalf of the Aristotle Foundation, I took the Toronto Star to task (last week - I’m late posting it) for a news story riddled with errors of fact and misleading interpretations on the subject of a Queen’s Park statue of Sir John A. Macdonald put in a rat-infested memory hole.
“Imagine being so intellectually deficient that you convince yourself anyone with a different opinion is corrupt.”
Tony Heller on X Jan. 3 2024 [https://twitter.com/TonyClimate/status/1742668645933949269] somewhat ironically as for all his excellent work on the subject Heller himself insists multiple times a day that climate alarmism is a hoax, very often with the hashtag #ClimateScam
“... the whole way of life to which men are attached and the large ideas to which they own allegiance.”
Walt Rostow (in one of his books but my bibliographic note to self is incomprehensible)
“Martin Amis, who was harshly criticized in America Alone but gave it a positive review, said of the style: ‘Mark Steyn is an oddity: his thoughts and themes are sane and serious – but he writes like a maniac.’”
Wikipedia entry on Mark Steyn [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Steyn] at least as of Feb. 9, 2024
In my latest Epoch Times column I argue that optimism is a psychological condition and generally fatuous, while hope is a theological virtue, in public affairs as in life more generally.