Quotations

"I used to be the most handsome man in Rome but [gesturing out the window] now I'm just one more ruin." 

Gore Vidal at his 50th birthday party, speaking to the writer Michael Mewshaw.

"There's a fascination frantic

In a ruin that's romantic

Do you think you are sufficiently decayed?"

The Mikado

"Everything that's fun in life is dangerous. Horse races, for instance, are very dangerous. But attempt to design a safe horse and the result is a cow ... It is impossible to be alive and safe." 

P. J. O’Rourke

"A camel is a horse designed by a committee."

Anonymous 

"Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. Actors in the war are those who incite in mosques, who write the murderous curricula for schools, who give shelter, who provide vehicles, and all those who honor and give them their moral support. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there. There is nothing more just, and probably nothing more efficient. Every suicide attacker should know that he takes with him also his parents and his house and some of the neighbours. Every brave Um-Jihad who sends her son to hell should know she’s going with him, along with the house and everything inside it.”

Ayelet Shaked in 2014. The next year she became Israeli Justice Minister. 

Last month she said Israel should take ‘take advantage of the destruction that we will wreak upon them’ in Gaza and pressure countries worldwide into accepting quotas of Gazan refugees, ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 per country. This idea is popular in the Israeli government.