Category: Thought

Conservative, n.

A statesman enamored of existing evils, as opposed to a Liberal, who wants to replace them with others.

Cynic, n.

A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.

Egotist, n.

A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

Idiot, n.

A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.

Mayonnaise, n.

One of the sauces that serve the French in place of a state religion.

Once, adj.

Enough.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Any time economists start telling you to pass complex regulations to enforce morality, run in the opposite direction. The Obama administration had something with the idea of ‘science-based’ policy. At least let’s get the cause and effect science right before we start making moral claims.

John H. Cochrane, “NoahLogic,” The Grumpy Economist, June 4, 2017

The best scheme of finance is, to spend as little as possible; and the best tax is always the lightest.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles,” Ch. 7, Section 3 (1992), p. 190

If each human being is to have liberty, he cannot also have the liberty to deprive others of their liberty.

John Hospers, Libertarianism: A Philosophy for Tomorrow

The multiplication of a product commonly reduces its price: that reduction extends its consumption; and so its production, though become more rapid, nevertheless gives employment to more hands than before. It is beyond question that the manufacture of cotton now occupies more hands in England, France, and Germany than it did before the introduction of the machinery that has abridged and perfected this branch of manufacture in so remarkable a degree.

Primitively the love of property is gratified only by possession of food and shelter, and, presently, of clothing; but afterwards it is gratified by possession of the weapons and tools which aid in obtaining these, then by possession of the raw materials that serve for making weapons and tools and for ether purposes, then by possession of the coin which purchases them as well as things at large, then by possession of promises to pay exchangeable for the coin, then by a lien on a banker, registered in a pass-book. That is, there comes to be pleasure in an ownership more and more abstract and more remote from material satisfactions.

Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Ethics; Part IV: Justice, Chapter IV: “The Sentiment of Justice” (Williams & Norgate, 1891)

The day they discover yoga mats are carcinogenic will be the happiest day of my life.

Tim Minchin, from the monologue preface to his song “The Fence”

Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.