Maggie's Farm

It is not being deceived, but undeceived, that renders us miserable.

Sophie Arnold via a commenter at The Church of Climate Change

There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.

Inspector Clouseau

"To believe in God is one thing. A relationship with God is the end game.”

A pal

Q: When's the best time to plant a tree?
A: 20 years ago

Both from PJ O'Rourke (h/t Ace)

"The C student starts a restaurant. The A student writes restaurant reviews."

"The only advantage to being a middle-aged man is that when you put on a jacket and tie, you're the Scary Dad. Never mind that no one has had an actually scary dad since 1966. The visceral fear remains."

When you look at 19th century America or 18th and 16th century Europe, all of a sudden it’ll become clearer that the thing that broke the back of poverty and privilege in developed countries in the past was when property rights came around and destroyed feudal title.

Hernando de Soto (h/t Samizdata)

"I'm sure we can all pull together, sir." Lord Vetinari raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I do hope not, I really do hope not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions." He smiled. "It's the only way to make progress."

From Terry Pratchett's The Truth, As Ace says, "The entire city of Ankh-Morpork is in mourning. R. I. P." Lots of sad Pratchett fans out there.

“Striving for spiritual perfection is an ego trip. Faith is falling into grace.”

A friend

The one unforgivable sin is dipping into capital.

An old preppy aphorism, as recalled by Insty

"Accept loneliness as normal, merely a sign that action is required."

Limon, h/t Vanderleun. Who the heck is Limon?

The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

CS Lewis

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

CS Lewis

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

CS Lewis

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

CS Lewis on the topic of a human becoming a Christian

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

CS Lewis

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

H.L Mencken (more here)

"...I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprize, and independance to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."

Thomas Jefferson (h/t Ace). Right on, dude. Took the pup for a long walk this moring with a pal with his Molon Labe t-shirt. We ran into a dear 92 year-old neighbor friend on his morning walk, and I accused him of being a dirty old man for drooling over Mrs. BD and the other gals. He punched me in the stomach. He is a mountain-climber, world-wide.

Here's one:

Almost all lies are acts, and speech has no part in them.

Lots more here.

"Humming is to marriage as singing is to courtship."

Peter DeVries