Our ancestors attributed to the gods the vicissitudes of the weather, and we attribute to the President the vicissitudes of the stock market.
Aug 092021
Erring
Error is boundless.
Nor hope nor doubt,
Though both be groundless,
Will average out.
—Cunningham
Jun 162021
In our zeal to justify our opinions we neglect to justify having them at all.
Jun 072021
“How can you say that such-and-such is against X, when X is right there in its name?” This argument owes its extraordinary popularity to its utility as a trial balloon: people who swallow it will swallow anything.
May 282021
When bemoaning all that you should know, but do not, spare a thought for all that you should not know, but do.
May 062021
When I was young, I regarded argument as a path to truth, later as a harmless vice, and finally as a positive plague.
Mar 302021
Fools come in two kinds: the Barren, whom nothing reminds of anything; and the Promiscuous, whom anything reminds of everything.
Mar 292021
It is strange, the way people will believe bizarre and byzantine theories about their rulers after years of being lied to by them continuously.
Mar 032021
The illusion it affords of objectivity is conversion’s great appeal: the convert, though once a fanatic, has learned his lesson, and today’s belief is informed exclusively by a sober consideration of its merits.
Jan 142021
We remember only the errors we pay for.
Dec 292020
To treat such doctrines as pacifism and communism as errors is itself an error. One does not argue with pipe dreams, or refute impossibilities.