Category: Thought

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.

When a people lose the courage to resist encroachment on their rights, then they can’t be saved by an outside force. Our belief is that people always have the kind of government they want and that individuals must bear the risks of freedom, even to the extent of giving their lives.

Lucy Rail, a character in A. E. Van Vogt’s The Weapon Shops of Isher (1951).

People who fear death … live no longer than those who don’t, and live scared.

Gene Wolfe, The Knight (2004), p. 384.