'I think Britain is a much, much better place than when I first came here [in 1973]. It’s more cosmopolitan and worldly, and I love that. So I was disappointed they voted to leave, but on the other hand… I keep reading these opinion pieces saying Britain shot itself in the head and I think, actually, no. Britain handled Brexit really, really well given that it was such a 50-50 thing. Where are the gilets jaunes? We can disagree ferociously but we are not going to start punching each other. Considering how finely divided the country was, I think it has been pretty civilised. It’s got a little fractious at times but… Look at the Basque separatists. Here, there weren’t any violent protests, we didn’t have to get tear gas out or rubber bullets or anything. Every-body was pretty good about it.'
Bill Bryson talking to Leaf Arbuthnot in the Spectator
Coleridge said 'the theologians tell us that souls have no sex, but I wonder. I very much wonder.'
Bill Bryson talking to Leaf Arbuthnot in the Spectator
Great quote from @RobertWargas ‘If I walk into a DC cocktail party I can instantly tell who the conservative is because he’s not saying anything.’ Too risky. https://t.co/j0h0yCob1n— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) May 13, 2020
Odd that in all the Coronavirus coverage and commentary (most of it utterly tedious) we have had no theological discussion of what it all means.— Xander Lucie-Smith (@ALucieSmith) May 15, 2020
Vox populi, vox humbug.
ReplyDeleteW. T. Sherman
Letter to his wife (2 June 1863)
The first Whig was the Devil.
ReplyDeleteSamuel Johnson
My life has been the result of accidents, not of goals and principles. My intellectual work forms only an insignificant part of it. Love and personal understanding are much more important. Leading intellectuals with their zeal for objectivity kill these personal elements. They are criminals, not the leaders of mankind.
ReplyDeletePaul Karl Feyerabend
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
ReplyDeleteEric Hoffer
ʻA book is a mirror; if an ape looks into it, an apostle is hardly likely to look out.’
ReplyDeleteG. C. Lichtenberg
Other People’s Thoughts: Idiosyncratically Compiled by Simon Leys for the Amusement of Idle Readers
Simon Leys
https://b-ok.org/book/5229718/abac04