“Alas, I am a wretch! Because of the terrors I have sufferedI bring pleasure to my enemies and toil to my friends.” —Theogenis of Megara 隔岸觀火 —《三十六計》 The President’s statement on U.S.-Saudi relations has caused understandable upset and predictable uproar. Most of these reactions are explicitly framed in terms of values. They need not be. […]
Vasily Perov, Portrait of Dostoevsky, 1872. The function of the Negro college, then, is clear: it must maintain the standards of popular education, it must seek the social regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in the solution of problems of race contact and co-operation. And finally, beyond all this, it must develop men. […]
Norman Rockwell, draft version of Freedom of Speech (1943). “In the United States… there is nothing the human will despairs of attaining through the free action of the combined power of individuals.” —Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol I (1835) American democracy and the civic life that supports it is in decline. This is […]
Image Source DR. STOCKMANN: It’s my own fault. I should have faced them down long ago—shown my teeth—and bite back! Call me an enemy of society! So help me God, I’m not going to swallow that! MRS. STOCKMANN: But Thomas dear, your brother does have the power— DR. STOCKMANN: Yes, but I’m in the right! […]
Vizzinni: But it’s so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you. Are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet, or his enemy’s? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a […]
