“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.”
H. L. Mencken
May the longest night bring you peace, and may the returning sun bring you courage.
"He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library."
― Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost
"I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine." - John Adams
Reductio ad absurdum fails when reality is absurd. - Randall Munroe
They talk of the dignity of work. Bosh. True Work is the necessity of poor humanity's earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure. - Herman Melville
"A room without books is like a body without a soul" - Cicero, approximately
“In vain I have looked for a single man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself.” - Confucius (Really! I think!)