Archives For November 30, 1999
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?…If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
J.R.R. Tolkien
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
I have had such a sickening of men in masses, and of causes, that I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium. I speak only for myself, mind – it is my own truth alone – but man as part of a movement or a crowd is indifferent to me. He is inhuman. And I have nothing to do with nations, or nationalism. The only feelings I have – for what they are – are for men as individuals; my loyalties, such as they may be, are to private persons alone.
Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Courage is being the only only one who knows how terrified you are.
Tom Clancy, Red Rabbit
The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you’re right. As one grows old, it is easier still.
Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity
Man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false,” but as “academic” or “practical,” “outworn” or “contemporary,” “conventional” or “ruthless.” Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Acerbity [əˈsɜːbɪtɪ] 