Notable Quotable 118

Oct 05, 2023

Western civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet.

- Terence McKenna

Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it.

- Nicolas Gomez Davila, 1913-1994, Columbian writer

He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.

- P.G. Wodehouse

For at least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.

- Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays, Vol. I: 1920-1925

Tolerance has come to mean that no one is right and no one is wrong and, indeed, the very act of stating that someone else’s views are immoral or incorrect is now taken to be intolerant (of course, from this same point of view, it is all right to be intolerant of those who hold to objectively true moral or religious positions). Once the existence of knowable truth in religion and ethics is denied, authority (the right to be believed and obeyed) gives way to power (the ability to force compliance), reason gives way to rhetoric, the speech writer is replaced by the makeup man, and spirited but civil debate in the culture wars is replaced by politically correct special-interest groups who have nothing left but political coercion to enforce their views on others.

- J.P. Moreland

Strike.Me

Buy Me a Coffee

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

- Isaac Asimov

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

- H.L. Mencken

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

- Thomas Jefferson

Our role is to widen the field of discussion, not to set limits in accord with the prevailing authority.

- Edward Said

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

- President James Madison