The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose, and this is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.… Continue Reading
Inspired by a comment from BradK yesterday, I decided that I wanted to be James Bond and drink a Vesper. So I bought a bottle of Lillet, and while I was waiting for it to chill, I went back and… Continue Reading
A doctor, lawyer, or engineer may become wealthy, but the real meaning of their work is that they sustain health, justice, good government, or safety. – Chris Hedges
Some men want whores on the eve of battle, and some want gods. Jon wondered who felt better afterward. – George R.R. Martin
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the… Continue Reading
“In the days of my own prosperity things had seemed to me to be very well arranged.” Now from his new point of view he was to find they were no arranged at all; that government was a compromise of… Continue Reading
…[T]here was an extraordinary mental resistance to discovery and invention for at least a hundred years after the scientific revolution had begun. Each new thing made its way into practice against a scepticism that amounted at times to hostility. –… Continue Reading
…[W]henever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window. – Neal Stephenson
Cultures that cannot distinguish between illusion and reality die. The dying gasps of all empires, from the Aztecs to the ancient Romans to the French monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, have been characterized by a disconnect between the elites and… Continue Reading
…we feel always a sort of mental superiority over those whose lives we know better than they suppose. — Pere Alexandre Dumas