I Cannot Be Sure

I have no right to coerce someone else, because I cannot be sure that I'm right and he is wrong.

-- Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006), American economist, "Say 'No' to Intolerance", Liberty magazine, vol. 4, no. 6, (July 1991) pp. 17-20

Not Your Own

The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.

-- Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924), Bohemian-Jewish novelist, The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918), Aphorism #29

These Are The Measure

To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose.

-- Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910), British nurse, pioneer of modern nursing, and noted statistician, as quoted in Chance Rules : An Informal Guide to Probability, Risk, and Statistics (1999) by Brian Everitt, p. 137

A Precursor

I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas.  Without faith, there never could have evolved hypothesis, theory, science or mathematics.  I believe that faith is an extension of the mind.  It is the key that negates the impossible.  To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces.  My faith is in the unknown, in all that we do not understand by reason; I believe that what is beyond our comprehension is a simple fact in other dimensions, and that in the realm of the unknown there is an infinite power for good.

-- Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (1889 - 1977), British comedic actor and director, My Autobiography (1964), p. 291

Crooked Timber

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.

-- Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804), German philosopher, Idea for a General History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose (1784), Proposition 6

RIP Jesse Jackson

America is not like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size.  America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.  The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt.

-- The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born Jesse Louis Burns; 8 October 1941 - 17 February 2026), American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician, Address to the Democratic National Convention (1984)

The Most Divine

Of all God's gifts to the sight of man, colour is the holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.

-- John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), English author, poet, and painter, The Stones of Venice (1853) Volume II, chapter V, section 30

Surmounting Obstacles

People are often surprised to learn that I am an optimist.  They know how often I have been jailed, how frequently the days and nights have been filled with frustration and sorrow, how bitter and dangerous are my adversaries.  They expect these experiences to harden me into a grim and desperate man.  They fail, however, to perceive the sense of affirmation generated by the challenge of embracing struggle and surmounting obstacles.  They have no comprehension of the strength that comes from faith in God and man.  It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure in my knowledge that God loves us; He has not worked out a design for our failure.  Man has the capacity to do right as well as wrong, and his history is a path upward, not downward.  The past is strewn with the ruins of the empires of tyranny, and each is a monument not merely to man's blunders but to his capacity to overcome them.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Testament of Hope", published posthumously in Playboy magazine, January 1969 (h/t Andy Borowitz)

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas, and a 2026 in which you find joy and fulfillment.

Verification

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

-- Thomas Huxley (1825 - 1895), British biologist, On the advisableness of improving natural knowledge (1866)

Servant Of Our Politics

When we vest our personal opinions with the trappings of religion, we make religion the servant of our politics.

-- John Danforth (1936 -), former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, former U.S. Senator (R-MO), and ordained Episcopal priest, Faith and Politics (2006) p. 213

Horrific

It's the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.

But a Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. 

His awful statement will actually cause more antisemitism.

-- Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), in an X post condemning Representative Randy Fine (R-FL), who earlier tweeted "Release the hostages.  Until then, starve away." (28 July 2025)

Be Ashamed

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.

-- Horace Mann (1796 - 1859), American education reformer and abolitionist, Address at Antioch College (1859)

Foolish People

Foolish people -- when I say "foolish people" in this contemptuous way I mean people who entertain different opinions to mine.  If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.

-- Jerome K. Jerome (1859 - 1927), English author, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Equally Convenient

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

-- Henri Poincaré (1854 - 1912), French mathematician, theoretical physicist, and philosopher of science, Science and Hypothesis (1901), Preface, Dover abridged edition (1952), p. xxii

Does Not

Truth does not blush.

-- Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (c. 155 - c. 240), theologian in the early Christian church, known for his powerful denunciations of many influences he considered heretical, "Against the Valentinians" Adversus Valentinianos, 3.2

Very Nearly Allied

To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited.

-- Catherine II of Russia aka Catherine the Great (1729 - 1796), Empress of Russia for more than three decades, Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II (1859)

Habemus Papam

Habemus Papam!

-- A Vatican spokesman speaking from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the introduction of newly-elevated Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, of Chicago, the first American-born Pope (8 May 2025)

Inimical

All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty.  All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.

-- Henry Clay (1777 - 1852), American statesman and orator who served in both the House of Representatives and Senate, Speech on the Emancipation of South America, House of Representatives (24 March 1818); The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, vol. I (1857), ed. Daniel Mallory

RIP Pope Francis

May the Lord grant the deserved reward to those who have wished me well and will continue to pray for me.  The suffering that marked the final part of my life, I offer to the Lord, for peace in the world and brotherhood among peoples.

-- Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025), head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2013, Funereal Testament (29 June 2022); published by Daily Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office (21 April 2025)