Why is Mark Twain’s autobiography only coming out now, 100 years after his death? Because he stipulated so before dying. What he expresses in these screenshots from a PBS Newshour clip of the manuscript suggests why he might have wanted these thoughts to stay silent for a century. And they’re strangely resonant in our own [...]

Lastly, the superstitious man becomes a fanatic, and then his zeal becomes capable of all crimes in the name of the Lord. Voltaire – ON SUPERSTITION – Toleration and Other Essays

The superstitious man is his own executioner; and he is the executioner of all who do not agree with him. Voltaire – ON SUPERSTITION – Toleration and Other Essays What I love about this line is its first clause. In what way does superstition make us our own executioners? The second clause is easy enough [...]

No one can deny that it is possible for God to shower his finest gifts on one of his works. We may, therefore, believe in Jesus as one who taught and practised virtue; but let us take care that in wishing to go too far beyond that, we do not overturn the whole structure. Voltaire [...]

The gospel did not say to James, Peter, or Bartholomew: “Live in opulence; deck yourselves with honours; walk amid a retinue of guards.” It did not say to them: “Disturb the world with your incomprehensible questions.” Jesus, my brethren, touched none of these questions. Would you be better theologians than he whom you recognise as [...]

Gloucester: O! let me kiss that hand! Lear: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. –Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.vi.131-2 I don’t mean to get morbid here, it being summer and all, but I’ve been spending a good bit of time lately in the Intensive Care Unit with my mother-in-law, and the sights there [...]