Fewtril #183

Is there anything so vulgar, so vapid, and so overpriced that it cannot appeal to young professionals?

Fewtril no.227

There is a terrible lot of straw men walking around — so why not attack them?

Fewtril #173

The ease with which moral cowards denounce the committing of lesser evils is a grotesque parody of the difficulty with which the brave have in choosing them.

Fewtril #172

The stupidity of animals amuses us — such as a dog chasing its tail. Against such behaviour, we can cite examples of reflective humanity — such as a man looking for self-esteem.

Fewtril no.242

The conceit of some journalists is so rich, and their conceptions so poor, that when they advocate a meritocracy, they imagine a state of affairs in which their meager talents would still be employed.

Fewtril #218

With principles that leave the dirty work to others, one can enjoy a spotless conscience by which to condemn those others.

Fewtril no.226

Some might say we are blessed by political moralism, in that for every matter about which one might feel guilty, there are a thousand unconscionable ways in which one might feel absolved — so long as one remains an adherent. Yet even if one were to succumb to this graceless convenience, guilt would find its own way, attaching itself at last to one’s own existence and advantages.

Fewtril no.257

In nobility lies the ability to admire without hope of imitation.

Fewtril no.238

Though it is true that I am an anti-democrat, I would never go so far as not to have criminals strung up by their ankles in parks and town-squares such that local democracy would be deprived of the opportunity to express itself.

Fewtril no.243

The man who dismisses intuition as a pre-scientific folk-myth is just the sort of stout, deliberative, no-nonsense chap to have by one’s side in times of sitting down and drinking tea.

Fewtril #201

The defenders of a dying creed often hasten its death by the manner in which they choose to defend it—by a solicitous desire not to offend its enemies, which stirs in those enemies neither pity nor respect, but contempt and a gleeful and ruthless resolve to see it off. More desperate still is when the defenders broaden the scope of their creed until it is hardly distinguishable from those that surround it. Thus, it dies not from murder but from abject suicide in obeisance to its enemies.

Fewtril no.268

To confidence is owed half the success of becoming an intellectual; and to intellect is owed less than half.

Fewtril #192

The more we study great men, the more we learn of their great inconsistency in character and behaviour, and of the often inscrutability of their causes and motives. Such might be true of most or all men, but because we study only great men in depth, we are inclined to see such degrees of inconsistency and inscrutability as marks of greatness alone.

Fewtril #177

There are some who — if it were not for exaggeration — would find it difficult to believe anything they were told.

Fewtril #145

When a man proceeds rationally from his values, he must always guard against a fallacy that often arises therewith: that those values are made rational by the procedure thereafter. This fallacy waits upon all those who would like to wear the impressive raiments of rationality but who are barely able to dress themselves.

Fewtril #154

There are no barbarians quite like those who consider themselves to be on the highroad to enlightenment.

Fewtril #195

Nothing noble is ever done solely for the sake of its usefulness, but if nobility has a use, then it is in that bloody-mindedness that withstands even those things that one has been seduced into believing are inevitable.

Fewtril #200

One becomes so accustomed to the evasiveness and dishonesty of politicians that one immediately thinks something is amiss when one of them gives a straight answer, or admits without hedge or prevarication that he simply does not know something. It might even strike one as gauche and crass that he could step into the public arena without all the skills and tricks of his craft. Since much of his purpose lies in deception, he looks incompetent when he is not being typically deceitful.

Fewtril no.256

It is no disadvantage for those who thrill at enmity also to profess a universal brotherhood. There are many men who do not profess any such idea, or who do not do so with the demanded zeal, and who therefore make a most fitting object for hatred.

Fewtril no.273

Some liberals say that, in order to defend the West, we must defend “western values”, by which they mean “liberal values”, by which I understand those newly-invented values which have done more than any other to dissolve the West. It is like taking health-tips from disease-germs.