Quotations for today

The pure reactionary is not a dreamer of abolished pasts, but a hunter of sacred shades on the eternal hills... The reactionary does not aspire to turn back, but rather to change direction. The past that he admires is not a goal but an exemplification of his dreams.

Nicolás Gómez Dávila. This describes me.

Away with him, away with him! He speaks Latin.

William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II, 4.7.60 (Pope Francis Jack Cade speaking) via 

the Laudator Temporis Acti blog

Abasement, degradation is simply the manner of life of the man who has refused to be what it is his duty to be. 

Jose Ortega Y Gasset. This is very true.

The pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret.


Sarah Bombell, Australian who won bronze medal in Commonwealth Games in 2010.

The life of the individual -- whether this be animal or plant or man -- is as perishable as that of peoples of Cultures. Every creation is foredoomed to decay, every thought, every discovery, every deed to oblivion. Here, there, and everywhere we are sensible of grandly fated courses of history that have vanished. Ruins of the "have-been" works of dead Cultures lie all about us. The hubris of Prometheus, who thrust his hand into the heavens in order to make the divine powers subject to man, carries with it his fall. What, then, becomes of the chatter about "undying achievements"?

Oswald Spengler, Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life

It is advertising that enthrones the customer as king. This infuriates the socialist...[it is] the crossing of the boundary between West Berlin and East Berlin. It is Checkpoint Charlie, or rather Checkpoint Douglas, the transition from the world of choice and freedom to the world of drab, standard uniformity.

Enoch Powell. Western Leftists like Ken Livingstone etc admired Communist China in the pre-Deng era and were disgusted by Hong Kong. James Palmer left-wing, Cambridge educated historian whom I dined with in Peking told me South Korea was repulsive. I, in the true Cambridge spirit, expected to like Eastern Europe because of the lack of advertising but when I got here in January 1990 found it deeply depressing. Somewhat to my surprise I found Seoul, which I visited after China, was a triumph of the human spirit.

The Iraq war was not a mistake. The Iraq retreat was a mistake. D-Day would have been a ‘mistake’ if we invaded then left before victory

David French, the Republican journalist who almost stood as a candidate against Donald Trump, tweeted this on February 14, 2016

He’s too stupid for my liking.


Admiral Dönitz, Hitler's successor as German Fuehrer for eight days, explaining his rejection of Ribbentrop’s offer to serve in his government. It was Ribbentrop who told Hitler that England and France would not go to war for Poland.


I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.


Winston Churchill


Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.


Arnold Bennett