Category: Thought

Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact.

Aristotle, Posterior Analytics.

ἔστιν ἄρα ἡ ἀρετὴ ἕξις προαιρετική, ἐν μεσότητι οὖσα τῇ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὡρισμένῃ λόγῳ καὶ ᾧ ἂν ὁ φρόνιμος ὁρίσειεν. μεσότης δὲ δύο κακιῶν, τῆς μὲν καθ᾽ ὑπερβολὴν τῆς δὲ κατ᾽ ἔλλειψιν:

Virtue then is a settled disposition of the mind as regards the choice of actions and feelings, consisting essentially in the observance of the mean relative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as the prudent man would determine it. And it is a mean state between two vices, one of excess and one of defect. 

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, translated by Harris Rackham. The illustration of the philosopher is a line engraving by P. Fidanza after Raphael Sanzio.

The culprit solely responsible for inflation, the Federal Reserve, is continually engaged in raising a hue-​and-​cry about “inflation,” for which virtually everyone else in society seems to be responsible. What we are seeing is the old ploy by the robber who starts shouting “Stop, thief!” and runs down the street pointing ahead at others.

Murray N. Rothbard, The Case Against The Fed (1994), as quoted by Douglas French, “The Case Against the Fed: How Do We Eliminate Inflation and the Boom-​Bust Cycle” (FEE, November 1, 1995).

There is no human quality more attractive than the courage of the weak.

Gene Wolfe, Home Fires (2011), Reflection 1.

Once the most potent moral figure in Western culture was Jesus Christ. Believer or unbeliever, you took your ethical bearings from him, or professed to. To question his morals was to expose yourself as a monster. Now, the most potent moral figure in Western culture is Adolf Hitler. It is as monstrous to praise him as it would once have been to disparage Jesus. He has become the fixed reference point by which we define evil. 

Alec Ryrie, Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt (November 2019). See also “The End of the Age of Hitler,” First Things, November 2024.

November 14:

332 BC — Alexander the Great was crowned pharaoh of Egypt.

1770 AD — James Bruce discovered what he believed to be the source of the Nile.

1947 AD — P. J. O’Rourke, American libertarian political satirist and journalist (d. 2022) was born.