What makes people imagine that “the best we can do” is any good at all?
Nov 052019
Being
Identity, that spectator of what he calls himself,
That net and aggregate of energies in transient combination.
—Cunningham
Oct 092019
The less disposed we are to act on a belief, the more vehemently we defend it.
Oct 042019
There is dumb happiness, as well as dumb misery, and one ought to aim, not at more of the former or less of the latter, but at a better class of both.
Sep 132019
When Bentham designed the Panopticon, he did not anticipate so many volunteers.
Sep 092019
You are not better than this. You are not worse than this. You are exactly this.
Sep 052019
Natural selection surely favors a disposition to attribute success to factors under one’s control.
Aug 222019
Everyone needs a reason to get up in the morning, and a drug habit is a compelling reason.
Aug 072019
I bring my readers the glad tidings that there’s a lot you can’t fix and shouldn’t worry about, and it doesn’t seem to make them happy.
Jul 312019
I know many people with a positive mania for facing uncomfortable truths; it seems not to discomfort them in the least.
Jul 172019
It is simple to cheat an honest man; and one of the great themes of modern history is honest men getting cheated.