Quote of the Day

Many writers and thinkers in the last century and a half, still more in the last half century, have chosen, whether consciously or not, the side of the irrational—mauvais clercs, in my belief, if ever there were. Many men of action have done the same…Those who take the other side, the side of reason—who try to believe nothing unless there are rational grounds for it, and otherwise to be content with probabilities, or frank uncertainty, may be wrong—or they may be right, yet destined to defeat. None of them can live long enough to know. But at least they will not have frivolously undermined the foundations of their own civilization.

—F.L. Lucas, The Search for Good Sense

Quote of the Day

Few moderns are good mental economists; given the limited capacity of human memory, the limited length of human life, it becomes ever more vital to select; and to find a principle of selection…It seems to me, then, mere common sense never to undertake a piece of work, or read a book, without asking, “Is it worth the amount of life it will cost?”

—F.L. Lucas, The Search For Good Sense