Thank You, Biographers!

Biography is, of the various kinds of narrative writing, that which is most eagerly read, and most easily applied to the purposes of life.  –Samuel Johnson, The Idler, 84 in A Johnson Sampler, edited by…

Today’s One-Liner (#28)

Few people want to be saints nowadays, but everybody is trying to lose weight. ––René Girard, Maxim #30, in All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings, edited by Cynthia L. Haven.

Today’s One-Liner (#19)

Whenever people really believe in some truth larger than the academic world, they do not dedicate themselves to the pursuit of academic success with as much ferocity as the people who believe in absolutely nothing. …

Gratitude/3

For Jim Grote, who introduced me  in my late twenties to the work of Rene Girard, whom I am still reading, especially through three recent works by Cynthia L. Haven.  Girard’s ideas inspire, humble, energize,…

Today’s One-Liner (#8)

To have a scapegoat is to not realize you have a scapegoat. –René Girard, Maxim #58, in All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings, edited by Cynthia L. Haven.