Category: Thought

If a man appears as a witness, but withdraws his oath, he must make payment, to the extent of the value in litigation of the case.

The Code of Ur-Nammu, 21st century B.C.

We are a nationwide organization of people looking for clues.

Owen “The Hammer,” of the “Hammered Out” YouTube channel, in “‘Twin Peaks’ Explained, Part Three: Cooper Cooper Cooper,” describing the “Twin Peaks” fanbase. The next line is “We are a federal bureau of investigation.”

Who overcomes 
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book One (1667).

While I support legal immigration, no one likes line skippers at Disney World or the border. Legal citizens who are here pursuant to our laws should have the right to vote — no one else.

West Virginia State Senator Mike Stuart, as quoted in “Proposed amendment to add U.S. citizenship to W.Va. voting requirement passes House,” West Virginia Record (February 7, 2024).

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

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

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.

Titus Livius, History of Rome, Book I, §17.

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.

Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (1947; 1997 edition), p. 120.

Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong; it admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits.

Titus Livius, History of Rome, Book II, §3.

Der Künstler darf eben so wenig herrschen als dienen wollen.
Er kann nur bilden, nichts als bilden, für den Staat also nur
das thun, dass er Herrscher und Diener bilde, dass er
Politiker und Oekonomen zu Künstlern erhebe.

The artist should have as little desire to rule as to serve. He can only create, do nothing but create, and so help the state only by . . . exalting politicians and economists into artists.

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel, “Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 54.

The day of the android has dawned.

Brian Aldiss, “Are You An Android?,” Science Fantasy #34 (April 1959).