Category: Thought

What did the president know, and when did he know it?

Senator Baker’s key question in the Watergate scandal.

A beleza de um corpo nu só o sentem as raças vestidas.

The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (1982), trans. Richard Zenith.

Get over yourself!

Hillary Clinton explaining to Jimmy Fallon why you shouldn’t complain about the choice between Biden and Trump. “Those are the two choices,” she said.

A metafísica é uma consequência de estar mal disposto.

Metaphysics is a consequence of not feeling very well.

Fernando Pessoa, Tabacaria (1928), trans. Richard Zenith.

“Someone asked me about cancel culture, and I said, ‘If you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture that you want to be canceled from.’ Because who wants to be part of this culture?”

Woody Allen, as interviewed by Sam Wasson, “All the Romance of Filmmaking Is Gone,” Air Mail (April 6, 2024).

The law of supply and demand applies to tomatoes and also to ideas. Demand for research that bolsters arguments for bad policy leads to supply of research. Truth provides some constraints but doesn’t always prevail.

David Barker, “Climate Alarmists’ Bad Science,” Wall Street Journal (April 3, 2024.