Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.
E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), chapter 22.
Socialist states like North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cuba and others consider feminism to be petit bourgeois and as a consequence give women few roles in life- mother or whore. For example, red light areas in Vietnam the left claimed during the war were there because of GI’s being there, have grown to incredible miles of streets. Cuba has all ages prostitution to make up for the lack of upward mobility for women in society. Once you go socialist, women are the first losers. So why would women in any society want socialism?
Because like “fascist,” they make up their own meaning of what socialist is.
Michael Flores, “Trump’s Populist Moment,” Substack: Civil and Global Defense (February 15, 2025).
Life cannot wait until the sciences may have explained the universe scientifically. We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent, “here and now” without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank. And culture, which is but its interpretation, cannot wait any more than can life itself.
José Ortega y Gasset, Mission of the University [Misión de la Universidad (1930; translation © 1944, first published 1946), p. 73, translated by Howard Lee Nostrand.
The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907), Vol. X, “Political Morality.”
May we not say that there is nothing in us, during this earthly prison, simply corporall, or purely spirituall?
Michel de Montaigne, as quoted in Why We Should Read ——, by S. P. B. Mais (1921).
No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else. All the dogmatic stations in life have the effect of fixing a certain stiffness of attitude forever, as though they mesmerised the subject.
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907), Vol. VII, “Treason.”
Without great men and without clear convictions this age is nevertheless very active intellectually: it is studious, empirical, inventive, sympathetic. Its wisdom consists in a certain contrite openness of mind; it flounders, but at least in floundering it has gained a sense of possible depths in all directions.
George Santayana, as quoted in Why We Should Read ——, by S. P. B. Mais (1921).
I was battered and bruised, but the king was amused
Sung by Danny Kaye, playing Hubert Hawkins, in The Court Jester (1955), movie writing credits to Norman Panama and Melvin Frank but lyrics credited to Sammy Cahn.
And before the siesta, he made me his jester
And I found out soon, that to be a buffoon
Was a serious thing as a rule!
For a jester’s chief employment,
is to kill himself for your enjoyment
And a jester unemployed is nobody’s fool!
A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race — and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness (1964).
We are all willing to work with anyone who’s serious about doing the work of censoring the American people and advancing progress.
Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), taking “a bit of umbrage” and speaking “on behalf of my colleagues.” Best guess as to what she meant to say is “centering the American people,” whatever that means. But she did not say that. She said “censoring.” She is talking about the Department of Government Efficiency and the closing of the rogue agency the CFPB. She concludes this statement with “But they are not serious,” referring to the people she opposes: the Republicans and President Trump’s team constituting the DOGE.