Category: Thought

It pisses me off that nearly every major talking head advocates gun control, arrogant in their belief that most Americans can’t be trusted to arm and protect themselves without hurting others. Meanwhile, it’s these same talking heads who never have to worry about being shot at by a crazed lunatic, because the lunatic and the talking head are separate from each other by five layers of security.

Greg Gutfeld, “Katie Couric’s Life Is More Important Than the Average College Freshman’s (Even If She Looks Remarkably Like an Elf),” The Bible of Unspeakable Truths (2010), p. 4. Photographs, above, depict: journalist Juan Williams, who has nothing to do with this snippet of Gutfeldiana; a sidearm, which does; and Greg Gutfeld himself. Gutfeld is the one that is not black. Or gun-metal gray.

The law is reason unaffected by desire.

“The Greek writer, Aristotle, quoted some centuries before Christ from ‘the African,’ probably some Carthaginian writer on agriculture, the now familiar saying, ‘the best manure for the land is the foot of the owner.’ This homely word long attributed to Dr. Franklin, who stole it for his ‘Poor Richard’s Almanack’ more than a century ago, is based on the sound principle, that personal supervision to be most effective must be limited in its sphere, and that the best agricultural skill becomes weak when it attempts to exhibit itself on too broad a surface. Because a man can cultivate 100 acres better than any of his neighbors, it does not prove that he will cultivate 50 acres additional to them better than a neighbor of inferior skill, who is the owner of these 50 and no more.”

Arthur Latham Perry, Principles of Political Economy (1891).

Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.

Aristotle, Politics, Book One.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

Master Kong, The Analects, fourth chapter.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

Henry David Thoreau, journal, Nov. 11, 1850, presumably playing off of rumors of dairymen diluting their product with water during a milk shortage.

Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds. . . . Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.

Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention (June 5, 1788), speech regarding the Federal Constitution.

Today we are practically living a trade war, a currency war because the exchange rate today is one of the important factors to determine the competitiveness or not of products. Generalized currency depreciation in my view is an explicit strategy used by countries and that threatens us.

Guido Mantega, “The Role of Industry in the Growth of Brazil” organized by the Getulio Vargas Foundation, September 27, 2010. This statement from Brazil’s Finance Minister is eerily similar to statements made by folks around the world — about other countries’ monetary policies. Donald Trump bases his complaints against China on precisely these grounds. Pictured: the Brazilian Real against the U.S. Dollar from 2007 to 2017, courtesy xe.com.

When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.

Master Kong, The Analects, eighth chapter.

I renounce the idea sometimes advanced that the state governments ever were or continue to be, sovereign or unlimited. If the people are sovereign, their governments cannot also be sovereign.

John Taylor of Caroline, Construction Construed, and Constitutions Vindicated (1820).