“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
Benjamin Franklin
“The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under a lamp, a book spread before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.”
The 14th-century Japanese priest Kenko in the Tsurezuregusa (“Grasses of Idleness”)
“All country people hate each other. They have so little comfort, that they envy their neighbours the smallest pleasure or advantage . . . From not being accustomed to enjoyment, they become hardened and averse to it — stupid, for want of thought — selfish, for want of society. There is nothing good to be had in the country, or, if there is, they will not let you have it. They had rather injure themselves than oblige anyone else.”
William Hazlitt reviewing Wordsworth's Excursion.
"We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green."
G. K. Chesterton
“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is...in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
Theodore Dalrymple
“We stand here tonight … among the rubble of what was once the grandest and most beautiful civilization the world has ever known. We are being destroyed by those who should be protecting us. We are being undermined by our universities, our journalists. By the people whose art is subsidized by the state and those who design our buildings. And especially by those who govern us […], people who haven’t read a book in their lives, have no idea what the long-term issues are, [and who] time and time again, in a strange mix of incompetence and cynical self-interest, make the wrong choices. But not for long!”
Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD), on March 20.
"The overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community. Of course, in return, we have rap music, goat curry and a far more vibrant and diverse understanding of cultures which were once alien to us. For which, many thanks."
Rod Liddle in 2010 in his Spectator blog (the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint that the Spectator had failed to provide sufficient evidence to back up the claim).
“The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under a lamp, a book spread before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.”
The 14th-century Japanese priest Kenko in the Tsurezuregusa (“Grasses of Idleness”)
“All country people hate each other. They have so little comfort, that they envy their neighbours the smallest pleasure or advantage . . . From not being accustomed to enjoyment, they become hardened and averse to it — stupid, for want of thought — selfish, for want of society. There is nothing good to be had in the country, or, if there is, they will not let you have it. They had rather injure themselves than oblige anyone else.”
William Hazlitt reviewing Wordsworth's Excursion.
"We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green."
G. K. Chesterton
“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is...in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
Theodore Dalrymple
“We stand here tonight … among the rubble of what was once the grandest and most beautiful civilization the world has ever known. We are being destroyed by those who should be protecting us. We are being undermined by our universities, our journalists. By the people whose art is subsidized by the state and those who design our buildings. And especially by those who govern us […], people who haven’t read a book in their lives, have no idea what the long-term issues are, [and who] time and time again, in a strange mix of incompetence and cynical self-interest, make the wrong choices. But not for long!”
Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD), on March 20.
"The overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community. Of course, in return, we have rap music, goat curry and a far more vibrant and diverse understanding of cultures which were once alien to us. For which, many thanks."
Rod Liddle in 2010 in his Spectator blog (the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint that the Spectator had failed to provide sufficient evidence to back up the claim).
We need immigrants to fight more Middle East wars! "A large working-age population serves as a source of military manpower ...”
Not for the first time I am forced to acknowledge what a mistake it is to address young leftists as though they were responsible human beings.
ReplyDeleteRoger Scruton
‘Women smoking in the street was considered vulgar in my youth, now it’s about the only place they can.’
Nicky Haslam
“Extraordinary how stupid one can be when one would prefer to impress by being knowledgeable.”
James Hilton
“I never forget that work is a curse—which is why I’ve never made it a habit.”
Blaise Cendrars
People - Dr Johnson just for one example - used to write a lot in praise of idleness, but not any more. The world has deteriorated. I blame Protestantism and the Americans, though Ronald Reagan said, 'They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I say why take that chance?' He and Donald Trump were lazy Presidents. George W. Bush started work each day at 8. Hillary and Mrs May are hard workers too.
DeleteMunca e pentru tractoare.
DeleteThe version of that proverbs I was told mentions blacks.
DeleteThat variant was used mainly by the likes of the money changers on Covaci Street, the famous 'bishnitsari', themselves some shade of black, doing business under the protection and for the benefit of the Securitate: 'blacks' in that context was the rest of us... 'fraierii...'
Delete