"It seems to me of
practical importance that the analytical and critical bent of our age should
not be expended entirely on our ancestors and that confusions should sometimes
be exposed while they are still potent. It is more dangerous to tread on the
corns of a living giant than to cut off the head of a dead one: but it is more
useful and better fun.”—C.S. Lewis, Studies in Words
“Contamination
and barbarism are one set of names for this sort of thing: another name is
vitality. Everything which is alive tends to break out into vulgarity at times.
Only the dead and embalmed can preserve for ever their changeless armorial dignity.”—Dorothy
Sayers, “Ignorance and Dissatisfaction” Address to the Association for the
Reform of Latin Teaching, Aug. 26, 1952
“The basis of
wisdom is the wise disposal of time, and full wisdom will be the wise disposal
of a whole lifetime.”—Comenius, Pampaedeia V.4 (in John Amos
Comenius: A Visionary Reformer of Schools)
“God did not
create angels and humans, and in addition all kinds of superfluous things. In
God’s creation nothing is secondary, nothing is superfluous, nothing can be
dispensed with. To put it strongly, not a speck of dust too many has been
created, not a drop of water beyond what was required, and thus there is among
the thousands of stars not a single diamond in the Milky Way that could be
missed. It is all one; it all constitutes a single whole; it all together makes
up the great organic universe of the Lord our God—that is, the world in which
he delights—better still, the appointed instrument of his glory.”—Abraham
Kuyper, Common Grace Vol. II
“Reason and ideas
take their time; they work slowly on the reshaping of consciousness and
institutions. Authority is for the moment…it is oriented to the body and to
personal presence. It is dramatically successful in controlling the immediate
present, but it extends only as far as it can reach. If truth is the daughter
of time, authority is the daughter of the present moment.”—Werner Jaeger, The
Envy of Angels
“The great thing
about Doug Wilson is his clear summaries; the man sometimes speaks in bumper
stickers. Which may actually be harder to do than we think.”—Chris Schlect
“For since
nothing happens without cause, this is exactly what Fortune is: an event which
is the result of an obscure and unforeseen cause.”—Cicero, Topica xvii
“But it is not
every sort of person whose testimony is worth considering…for it is a common
belief that the talented, the wealthy, and those whose character has been
tested by a long life, are worthy of credence.”—Cicero, Topica xix
“What difference
does it make whether you serve willingly or against your will? For though
compulsory slavery be more pitiable, slavery deliberately sought is more
lamentable.”—Bernard of Clairvaux, De Consideratione I.4
“First of all,
consideration purifies the very fountain, that is the mind, from which it
springs. Then it governs the affections, directs our actions, corrects excesses,
softens the manners, adorns and regulates the life, and, lastly, bestows the
knowledge of things divine and human alike. It is consideration that brings
order out of disorder, puts in the links, pulls things together, investigates
mysteries, traces the truth, weighs probabilities, exposes shams and
counterfeits. It is consideration which arranges beforehand what is to be done,
and ponders what is accomplished, so that nothing faulty, or needing
correction, may settle in the mind. It is consideration which in prosperity
feels the sting of adversity, in adversity is as though it felt not; the one is
fortitude, the other is prudence.”—Ibid. I.7
“The mind must
first reflect upon itself in order that it may frame a rule of Justice, and not
be inclined to do to another what it would not have done to itself, nor refuse
to another what it desires for itself. These two assuredly comprise the whole
sphere of Justice.”—Ibid. I.8
“Forsooth this is
the way with the wit of man. Knowledge is sometimes superfluous: when we need
it, we have it not.”—Ibid. II.1
“For if you
consider these two attributes together, rationality and mortality, you gather
good fruit—the fact of your mortality humbles your reason, while your reason
supports you under the thought of your mortality, and a prudent man will not
neglect either side.”—Ibid. II.4
