Thought

Samuel Butler

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
Samuel Butler, Speech at the Somerville Club, February 27, 1895.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Illinois’s Chicken-and-Fish Supreme Court
SharingA constitution is the law of the land only to …
Really Protecting Our Rights
SharingIncentives matter. Which is why Ohioans have much to celebratethis …
Term Limits Now
SharingGovernment of, by and for the people. Yeah, right. If government …
After Recall, Revival
SharingIs San Francisco waking up from its dystopian nightmare? The egalitarians …
The Spirit of Initiative
SharingToday is inauguration day for President Barack Obama. When I think …

Measures for Measures
November 23, 2024
This year was an interesting one for initiatives.Read More »
Denial Is a River in Argentina?
November 22, 2024
Paul Jacob on one country’s retreat from self-imposed poverty.Read More »
Watch Out!
November 21, 2024
Paul Jacob on strange edits in the Lone Star State.Read More »
The Hill as Hallucinogen
November 19, 2024
Paul Jacob on a false news story, gone but not …Read More »
Elon & Vivek to Cut Government?
November 18, 2024
Paul Jacob on who could help whom do what is …Read More »

Trying Our Souls
SharingIn Common Sense, his incredible hit pamphlet of 1776, Tom …
Dousing the Dumpster Fire
Sharing“Congress is less popular than traffic jams, root canals, and …
Getting to Know You
SharingThe Fourth Estate is coming undone. Obviously. But little did I know …
The Yellow and White Lines
SharingIf I’ve heard it one million times, I’ve heard it …
Freedom in Granite
Sharing“In the past two years,” the Cato Institute announced last …

Bellicose Exclusions
Sharing“Jones and his Infowars nutritional supplement sales empire are having …
Courage and Wisdom?
SharingPresident Donald Trump responded to the weekend’s two shooting atrocities …
Dousing the Dumpster Fire
Sharing“Congress is less popular than traffic jams, root canals, and …
The Cattle Are Restless
Sharing“There is one law for man,” goes an ancient saying, …
Inconvenient Cash?
SharingEverywhere I turn these days, I am hearing something about the push …

On November 23, 1644, British poet John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.
John Milton, Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England (1644).

The name “Areopagitica” references a speech by Isocrates, the “Areopagitikós” that itself referenced a hill in Athens, Greece, the Areopagus, which had been the site of an important tribunal that the Greek orator had hoped to restore. It may also refer to the defense that St. Paul made before the Areopagus against charges of promulgating alien gods and outré teachings (see Acts 17:18 – 34).