Category: Thought

The capitalist system was termed “capitalism” not by a friend of the system, but by an individual who considered it to be the worst of all historical systems, the greatest evil that had ever befallen mankind. That man was Karl Marx. Nevertheless, there is no reason to reject Marx’s term, because it describes clearly the source of the great social improvements brought about by capitalism. Those improvements are the result of capital accumulation; they are based on the fact that people, as a rule, do not consume everything they have produced, that they save — and invest — a part of it.

Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow (1979; Third Edition: 2006),

When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner o’
Later those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think ofall the weeping they will do. But don’t you worry.

No more ashes, no more sackcloth,
And an armband made of black cloth
Will some day never more adorn a sleeve:
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There’ll be nobody left behind to grieve.

Tom Lehrer, beginning of the song “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer (1959), track 2.

What did the president know, and when did he know it?

Senator Baker’s key question in the Watergate scandal.

A beleza de um corpo nu só o sentem as raças vestidas.

The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (1982), trans. Richard Zenith.

Get over yourself!

Hillary Clinton explaining to Jimmy Fallon why you shouldn’t complain about the choice between Biden and Trump. “Those are the two choices,” she said.

A metafísica é uma consequência de estar mal disposto.

Metaphysics is a consequence of not feeling very well.

Fernando Pessoa, Tabacaria (1928), trans. Richard Zenith.

“Someone asked me about cancel culture, and I said, ‘If you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture that you want to be canceled from.’ Because who wants to be part of this culture?”

Woody Allen, as interviewed by Sam Wasson, “All the Romance of Filmmaking Is Gone,” Air Mail (April 6, 2024).

The law of supply and demand applies to tomatoes and also to ideas. Demand for research that bolsters arguments for bad policy leads to supply of research. Truth provides some constraints but doesn’t always prevail.

David Barker, “Climate Alarmists’ Bad Science,” Wall Street Journal (April 3, 2024.

There are people with whom everything they consider a means turns mysteriously into an end.

Friedrich Schlegel, Philosophical Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 428.

Having touched Christ’s feet is no excuse for punctuation mistakes.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, Richard Zenith, translator.