Never have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults. A society that takes its solemn adolescents seriously is headed for serious trouble. How humorless and laughable the solemn young! One realizes that one of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does.
Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd (1960).
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.
Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774).
When I read Wired, the book written by (what’s his name?) Woodward, about Belushi — I read like five pages of Wired — and I went, “Oh, my God: they framed Nixon.” … If this is what he writes about my friend that I’ve known for half of my adult life, which is completely inaccurate — talking to people of the outer, outer circle, getting the story — what the hell could they have done to Nixon?
Bill Murray in conversation with Joe Rogan on the Joe Rogan Experience (March 1, 2025), #2282.
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, letter (September 16, 1821).
The thing about a lie is that if you’ve been gullible, if you’ve fallen for the lie, you need to stay within the lie or otherwise you feel like you’re stupid, you feel like you’ve been made a fool of. It’s how lockdowns worked, and how vaccines worked — even now, with what we know, what’s coming out every single day, those who fell for the lie don’t want to leave the lie because to leave the lie means they have to face the reality that they were idiots.
Katie Hopkins, “Zelensky just got kicked out the WHITE HOUSE” (March 1, 2025).
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” second essay from Essays (1847 edition).