Conservative Conversation and Community
So I chose Valentine’s Day for my quote of the day, thinking it would be easy to write something about love, since I find myself madly in love with a truly wonderful man who is everything I ever wanted and better than I could ever have hoped for. While searching for the perfect love quote, I came across this:
“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.” Samuel Johnson
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MoreSo we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
– Nehemiah 4:6, NASB
February was another full month of Quote of the Day posts, with many making the Main Feed. All dates were taken by February 11, so share your favorite quote on the Quote of the Day March Sign Up Sheet. We make it easy to “Start a Conversation” by including tips for finding great quotes. Don’t […]
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She’s the ultimate femme fatale. And it’s one of the oldest stories in the world. The Beautiful Lady Without Pity. The subject of my second-favorite poem by John Keats, which was written 200 years ago, when Keats was just 23.
It’s his reworking of a 15th-century French poem of 800 lines, telling a complex story of love and loss. Keats throws out all the extraneous characters and globetrotting excesses of the original, boiling it down to a 48-line tale of one bewitched Knight, one beautiful Lady (without pity) and one withery, sedgy marsh where our bewildered hero is dumped by the Lady, after a night (one hopes) of ecstasy in her “Elfin grot.”
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In 1874, the economist John Stuart Mill commented on what is now called Keynesian theory — the idea that government spending can, and must, stimulate the economy in order to prevent or end recessions. He wrote:
MoreThe utility of a large government expenditure, for the purpose of encouraging industry, is no longer maintained…. It is no longer supposed that you benefit the producer by taking his money, provided you give it to him again in exchange for his goods. There is nothing which impresses a person of reflection with a stronger sense of the shallowness of the political reasonings of the last two centuries, than the general reception so long given to a doctrine which, if it proves anything, proves … that the man who steals money out of a shop, provided he expends it all again at the same shop, is a benefactor to the tradesman whom he robs, and that the same operation, repeated sufficiently often, would make the tradesman’s fortune. (Mill, 1874 [1974])
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The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
And everyone was saying, “It’s a conversation.” But it is not a conversation. It’s a one-sided….belief? And there was no room for discussion. It was just arguments; trolling; bullying.
Where was this stated? Can you guess what it was about? A political discussion board? YouTube comments? r/pol? It was said by a yarn dyer regarding a controversy over knitting on Instagram.
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This quote is taken from Ron Chernow’s excellent biography. Gen. Grant’s men took Ft. Henry easily in February 1862. The fort was poorly constructed and was nearly inundated by rising river waters. He then marched to Ft. Donelson. Its loss cost the South 12,000 surrendered men and opened the Cumberland River to Union penetration. The top two Confederate commanders (Floyd and Pillow) fled leaving Gen Buckner to surrender. Buckner had helped Grant when he was down on his luck in the 1850s. However, Grant demanded unconditional surrender which Buckner reluctantly accepted.
MoreAfter their greetings, Grant asked [Buckner] why Pillow had fled. “Well, he thought you would rather have hold of him than of any other man in the Southern Confederacy.” “Oh no,” Grant smirked. “If I had got him I’d have let him go again; he will do us more good commanding you fellows.” Grant and Buckner, both veterans who remembered Pillow from Mexico, shared a good laugh at this caustic remark.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. One of the most difficult aspects of the Way for me is not indulging in sarcasm and snide cleverness. There’s a background process in my general awareness that’s always looking out for an opportunity […]
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Love is strong yet delicate.It can be broken.To truly love is to understand this.To be in love is to respect this. – Stephen Packer More
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“That is not only not right; it is not even wrong.” — Wolfgang Pauli (1900-58)
The quote refers to something being asserted or claimed that is not only in error, but demonstrates such complete misunderstanding and ignorance by the person making the claim that it would be a waste of time to seriously discuss. I am sure many of you can identify ideas and people falling into that category.
MoreRicochet, and conservatism in general, are excellent sources of pessimism. We don’t have any utopian visions like the Left, and the most effective post often seems to a description of how our country is doomed, doomed, I tell you. The Left has captured the populace and will lead hordes of locust-like antifa zombies to despoil […]
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In Mark Helprin’s 2012 novel In Sunlight and in Shadow*, we meet a returning WWII veteran, Harry Copeland, who inherits the family business from his deceased father. When the business is threatened by a mafia boss, resulting in the death of one employee, and Harry himself nearly beaten to death, Harry learns that he will find no help from law enforcement or any other authority because all of them are being paid off. Harry must decide whether he will take matters into his own hands — eliminating the mafia boss himself.
More“My enemy is not the law,” he found himself saying under his breath as he walked — talking to himself was not a good sign — “but the enemy of the law, against which the law is too weak to defend itself. If the law is complicit in crime, is it the law? If, when not complicit, it not only fails to protect but proscribes self-protection, then it is not law but fraud. Anarchy arises not from those who defend themselves by natural right, but from officials who fail in their calling, look the other way, succumb to threats and blackmail, or who are themselves criminal. If without defending me the law says I can’t defend myself, it is no longer the law, and I have to defy it.”
A man can learn a lot about toast in the United States military, all the way from what ground beef in gravy tastes like on a piece of it to 1001 ways to turn the sworn enemies of his country into some. But there are other kinds of toasts, of friendship and fellowship and brotherhood. […]
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“The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money.” Benjamin Franklin, Necessary Hints to Those that would be Rich (1736). While I was talking with friends who were playing an online game, one boasted about how rich he was with virtual currency. He had incredibly amounts of money in this game […]
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“A contract has two main parts that should be spelled out: exactly what you are getting and exactly what you are giving for it. Those two elements are the purpose of the contract. There may be other parts of the contract to set jurisdiction and take care of other legal formalities, but those two parts should be absolutely clear. If they are not clear, if you do not understand these aspects of the contract, it is not yet time to sign.” — H. Sherman Rundles
Sherm Rundles has been one of my Mentors. He is from a generation before mine, just eight months younger than my mother. He “retired” twenty-some years ago from his corporate job and devoted himself to running the side businesses he and his wife had. When I talked to him about a month ago, he was happy to report that in his retirement and nearing eighty, he has finally gotten his workload almost down to sixty hours per week. I learned a lot from him, not only when we were working together, but later as I would visit him at his small business locations where he still holds court. Sherm is a no-nonsense guy. He thinks most things are simple, and the truth is that he’s right.
MoreThe Quote of the Day is the easiest way to start a fun conversation on Ricochet. You don’t have to be intelligent, pithy, or eloquent yourself. You can share a written passage that you find interesting, or even something from a favorite movie. You can present the naked quote, or add your thoughts on how […]
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