In my latest National Post column I say that whether American President Joe Biden broke the taboo on saying explicitly that the U.S. would defend Taiwan as a calculated geopolitical measure, or because he’s losing it, it makes the world a safer place that he blurted it out.
“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.”
Abba Eban (it was emailed by a friend without further attribution, and is widely cited online but again without any specific reference that I could find to when and where he said it)
“You have not come back from hell with empty hands.”
A handwritten note from André Malraux to Whittaker Chambers about his book Witness, quoted by William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review August 6, 2001 (adding “I remembered the gratitude Chambers felt” on receiving it.
In my latest National Post column I say the enduring, stomach-churning, decades-long futility of the Toronto Maple Leafs furnishes valuable lessons on how not to succeed in all sorts of areas of life including public policy… if only we could figure out what their secret is.
In my latest Epoch Times column I explain why I didn’t berate a guy over Ukraine just because he had a Russian accent.
“‘All ‘progressive’ thought has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain…. Hitler, because in his joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades.’”
Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The Atlantic Monthly February 2002
In my latest National Post column I say while politicians often hurt us by mistake, they boasted repeatedly that they would make gas unaffordable. So how’s it working for you?
“the road to hell may just as well be paved with no intentions as with the proverbial good ones.”
“Preface to Part Two: Imperialism” in Hannah Arendt The Origins of Totalitarianism (specifically regarding the claim that the British Empire was acquired absent-mindedly).