In Service to the Revolution
In the twenties, young people of education willingly gathered information for the authorities and the secret police, and thought they were doing so for “the good of the Revolution,” for the sake of the mysterious…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Today’s One-Liner (#319)
Courage and victory come to us only when we resolve to make sacrifices. –Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, We Have Ceased To See the Purpose: Essential Speeches, 20
Take Your Pick
What is the essence of Christ’s ministry? He teaches men “not to commit stupidities.” All of Tolstoy’s brutal empiricism and aristocratic impatience resound in that extraordinary answer. The Dostoevskyan Christ, on the contrary, teaches men…
Today’s One-Liner (#318)
When the work of art invades our consciousness, something within us catches flame. –George Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism, 45
The Crown of the Blessed
Moreover, if you do not steadily set your heart on Me, with a firm will to suffer everything for My sake, you will not be able to bear the heat of this battle or to…
Today’s One-Liner (#317)
[I]n my work, the “bad” mimesis is always dominant, but the “good” one is of course even more important. –Cynthia Haven, Conversations with Rene Girard: Prophet of Envy, 131
Home Sweet Home
Folk music was a reality of a more brilliant dimension. It exceeded all human understanding, and if it called out to you, you could disappear and be sucked into it. I felt right at home…
Today’s One-Liner (#316)
You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you –Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, Highway 61 Revisited
Today’s One-Liner (#315)
Perhaps it is impossible to be unbeautiful when you’re happy. –David Grossman, Be My Knife, 11
Present Moment, Awesome Moment
Goethe once said that during eighty years of life he had known eleven happy days. I imagine that everyone, in the course of their life, must have seen many hundreds of sunrises and sunsets; they…