“If the judge himself had owned both the Brownlee farm and Hell, he would have rented out the Brownlee place and lived in Hell.”

“Fate’s Purse” in Russell Kirk Ancestral Shadows

“Whether written out somewhere or merely a collection in the back of your mind, you likely have a to-do list of things you want to get done. After all, life is busy and there often isn’t time to do everything you would like. But do you have a to-don’t list? Things that you’re planning not to do? A recent article in the Financial Times points to the often-neglected importance of the art of not doing. In the desire to be productive and accomplish goals, it’s easy to always focus your attention on what to do, rather than on what you know you want to avoid. As the author points out, however, ‘sometimes the absence of bad is more important than the presence of good.’ After all, history is littered with countless examples in which the feeling that something must be done has won out over the patient wariness of avoiding doing something wrong to disastrous effect.”

E-mail from Charalambos Dritsas of IG Wealth Management March 3, 2023

In my latest Epoch Times column I contemplate the painfully familiar task of finding comfort at Christmastime despite everything.

“Goodness should be a factor. Greatness is more than a matter of magnitude – it should have a direction, too.”

David Reevely re the CBC’s Greatest Canadian and similar things in the UK, Germany and South Africa in Ottawa Citizen October 24, 2004

“Without justice, what is the state but a great band of robbers?”

St. Augustine, quoted by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza in National Post April 29, 2023

“One of these days is none of these days.”

“English saying” quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail June 6, 2013

“The impossible is often the untried.”

Irish footballer Jim Goodwin, widely quoted online for instance at https://www.quotes.net/quote/13410

“The Satanic Temple is celebrating 10 years of existence with its SatanCon convention in Boston this weekend, but it's not what you probably think. The organization is as much a theater of American satire as it is a place for believers. The temple, not be confused with the Satanic Church, does not formally deify Satan as the personification of evil, but rather it sees him as a literary character, a necessary rebel, while mocking traditional religion and calling out government’s embrace of institutions like the Catholic Church, co-founder Malcolm Jarry said. ‘They believe in a literary representation of Satan,’ Jarry said of the temple’s estimated 700,000 members around the world. ‘It’s a heroic figure who fights against tyrannical authority and for humanity, even if it’s a losing battle.’... The weekend convention at the Boston Marriott Copley Place is sold out, temple organizers say, boasting that it will be the largest satanic gathering in history. The convention, which is scheduled to include the temple's rituals, a marketplace and a wedding chapel, also caps a successful 10 years for the organization, symbolically based in a Victorian house in Salem, Massachusetts, Jarry said.... He described the typical temple member as ‘anyone who is nonconforming’ and those who are ‘marginalized people.’ These satanists support women's shelters, highway cleanup and addiction recovery centers, he said. A big issue for the temple is abortion rights. It recently launched a telehealth clinic in New Mexico that it says provides abortion medication via mail.”

NBC April 25, 2023