It is inevitable that the decay of sentiment should be accompanied by a deterioration of human relationships, both those of the family and those of friendly association, because the passion for immediacy concentrates upon the presently advantageous. After all, there is nothing but sentiment to bind us to the very old or to the very … Continue reading Sentiment not sentimentalism
Tag: quotations
The slow death of friendship
In Megalopolis the sentiment of friendship wastes away. Friends become, in the vulgarism of modern speech, "pals," who may be defined as persons whom your work compels you to associate with or, on a still more debased level, persons who will allow you to use them to your advantage. The meeting of minds, the sympathy … Continue reading The slow death of friendship
Sayers Must Advertise
I'm so pleased with myself that I knew immediately from whence this quotation was taken."You don’t need an argument for buying butter. It’s a natural, human instinct.” http://t.co/ETd6K8pTGv (via @prufrocknews )— Bria Sandford (@blsandford) May 5, 2014
Military prediction
"(The attempt of the United States to make military service attractive by offering high pay, free college education, and other benefits looks suspiciously like bribing the child with candy.)"~ p. 124Ideas Have ConsequencesI was reading through some saved drafts on my blog and came across this quotation from Richard Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences. (A marvelous … Continue reading Military prediction
Aubrey-Maturin First/Last Lines
I've been thinking about first and last lines from books. Some last lines are famous (The Lord of the Rings) and some first lines are famous (Moby Dick and Pride and Prejudice). But often times books are famous without their first and last lines being famous. So, maybe we'll have some first/last lines posts. Or … Continue reading Aubrey-Maturin First/Last Lines
The Guilty and the Innocent
“If I were a defendant and were innocent, I would want to be tried in a military court, rather than a civilian court. If guilty, a civilian, rather than a military.”~Robert Bork
Bad Habits
"The life of adventurers, gamesters, gypsies, beggars, and robbers is not unpleasant. It requires restraint to keep men from falling into that habit. The shifting tides of fear and hope, the flight and pursuit, the peril and escape, the alternate famine and feast of the savage and the thief, after a time render all course … Continue reading Bad Habits
The Vulgar Thomas Paine
Paine has a following still: with interesting archaism, the village atheist continues to pass out paper-backed copies of The Age of Reason. Radicalism having passed Paine by long ago, the twentieth century does not turn to him for political wisdom—merely for brilliant examples of what James Boulton accurately calls "the vulgar style" of political rhetoric.~Edmund … Continue reading The Vulgar Thomas Paine
Burke and the French Revolution
Burke knew that men are not naturally good, but are beings of good and evil, kept in obedience to a moral law chiefly by the force of custom and habit, which the revolutionaries would discard as so much antiquated rubbish. He knew that all the advantages of society are the product of intricate human experience … Continue reading Burke and the French Revolution
A Clear, Concise Indictment of D&D
And one that does not make accusations of immorality (well, perhaps a little bit, but not as you might expect).D&D was originally as artificial as chess: ill-assorted groups of ‘adventurers’, patterned vaguely after the Fellowship of the Ring, wandering through improbably spacious underground complexes excavated for no clear reason, practising aggravated assault and grand larceny … Continue reading A Clear, Concise Indictment of D&D