Analogously to Benford’s Law, 90% of the annotations in a used book occur in the first twenty pages.
Feb 102021
Feb 092021
The good are not holy, and the holy are not good.
Feb 082021
No one wants to live more than four or five stories up.
Feb 052021
There is no institution, save the state itself, that guards free expression, and all such self-appointed guardians inevitably become enforcers of orthodoxy.
Feb 042021
Munitions manufacturers exist because we want to war; cigarette manufacturers because we want to smoke; and manufacturers of lies and imbecilities because we want to believe them.
Feb 032021
If you must have the last word, it’s because you need it, and if you need it, it won’t help.
Feb 022021
We smile at Aristotle for imbuing stones with agency, and ascribing to their affinity for the earth the effects of gravity; yet language almost compels us, when we speak of inanimate objects, to imply the same thing.
Feb 012021
To argue with one’s political opponents is neither effective nor satisfying. It is more satisfying to insult and rage at them, and more effective to libel and report them.
Jan 292021
Humans, though naturally curious, are also highly trainable, and when we are punished often enough for noticing something we will eventually refrain.
Jan 282021
Fascism has often been popular. Communism has never been popular.