[Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language] easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who labored under anything like the disadvantages in…
As most of the little book’s exegetes remark, the story [of Rasselas]–to term it so–is a thread upon which an extraordinary number of powerful adagio are precariously arranged in series. Johnson once remarked that he…
[Samuel Johnson] used the conventions and mechanisms of Grub Street—writing rapidly, writing to order, writing in a standard genre—to generate literature, happily defined by Ezra Pound as “news that stays news.” –Paul Fussell, Samuel Johnson…
We don’t escape mimesis, we can only observe it—and in observing it, loosen the grip that envy has on us. And while we may be doomed to mimesis, we have, at least, a choice between…
Peter’s denial is a spectacular example: as soon as he finds himself surrounded by people hostile to Jesus, he imitates their hostility. — René Girard, All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings Selected by…
Brother Angelo was much afraid of evil spirits and asked Francis to let a brother sleep in his cell and keep him company at night. Francis said to him: Why fear weak and feeble foes…
Marginalia are the immediate indices of the reader’s response to the text, of the dialogue between the book and himself. –George Steiner, No Passion Spent Essays 1978 — 1995
We need to be vigilantly alert for any signs of being more focused on the ground we have covered than the path ahead and must regularly renew our fervor for the learning and growth that…
When you get right down to it, every death is disaster. Death is a total, utter negation of everything that leads up to it. Many nonbelievers, in their more honest moments, admit the unmentionable: death…
People are often unreasonable, illogical, self-centered, and some even murderous; forgive them anyway. –Prayer of St. Teresa of Calcutta, Adapted