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  2. The Wit and Wisdom of Andrew Klavan
December 22, 2025 at 4:10 PM

The Wit and Wisdom of Andrew Klavan

Fractad
@TWert

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I listen to Andrew Klavan's podcast every weekend, and he almost always says something memorable. Here are a few I've taken the trouble to jot down:

In a sane society, normality reflects the forms of creation.

Good men will not fight for a bad culture.

You have the right - and maybe even the responsibility - to sacrifice yourself, to speak the truth, to do what's right. But you don't have the right to sacrifice somebody else to do what's right.

The Great Speculation is the self-evident truth that other people are as real to themselves as you are to you, and all are equally dear to God.

Anger is the devil's cocaine.

Eternity is not a long time. It is all time, and it is impossible for mortal man to imagine. In eternity, for instance, you may not be reconnected to your lost loved ones; you may find you never lost them at all. In eternity, you may not find that God makes good out of evil; you may find that it was always good. You simply did not see it complete.

Because of this, the knowledge of good and evil is a curse to man, not a gift, because he sees it in time where it makes no sense. In his ignorance, all he knows is the injustice of the moment.

If you outlaw masculinity, only outlaws will be masculine.

Catastrophes happen quickly, but blessings occur over time.

We all grow up feeling that our best traits are native to us, but our worst faults were imposed upon us by circumstance.

The imagination is an organ for perceiving the invisible, and it's expressed in the arts.

People get so angry when I tell them that "judge not" means judge not. They think I'm turning my back on morality. But you can't. Was it Socrates who said men do wrong out of ignorance? I don't believe that. They put on the blinders of ignorance and do wrong out of self-interest. And fear, which is a kind of interest. They know. We all know.

Myself, I have an almost perfect faith that if we only allow the human future to be guided by the most intelligent among us, we will turn the Earth into a living hell.

Murder is a very good guide to when you have gone off track. When you are making light of murder, that is a good guide that something has gone off-track.

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (18)

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    Subcomandante America@TheReticulator·42w

    There are lots of good ones in that selection, and they kept getting better the more I kept reading.

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    JustmeinAZ@JustmeinAZ·42w

    Klavan has a way with words.

    I like his little humorous openings too. He always cracks me up. Cracks himself up sometimes too.

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    Django@Django·42w

    At the end of one of my favorite novels the protagonist judges himself guilty of the sin of innocence, innocence that forces knowledge to bear the burden. I wonder what Klavan would make of that claim.

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    Andrew Troutman@Dotorimuk·42w

    He referred to government officials as “sex workers.” Gotta love that.

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    Django@Django·42w
    ReplyingtoAndrew Troutman

    Andrew Troutman (View Comment):

    He referred to government officials as “sex workers.” Gotta love that.

    Because they are screwing the country?

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