The Joy of Curmudgeonry

Perhaps the depth of our downfall should be measured by the number of sociological schemes for our salvation.

In some circumstances, it takes a great effort to tell the difference between a clever man doing us wrong and an idiot doing his best.

What explains the absurd confidence in dialogue and debate but that they provide innumerous opportunities for the loquacious to try their lu...

Every new idea runs the risk of becoming surrounded by pitchforks and firebrands; though it must be said it would serve us well if some of t...

“If you want to make a good impression in society, you have to submit to being told all sorts of things you already know by people who don’t...

Þú, vinur minn, ert hálfviti . – You, my friend, are a half-wit.

Disbelief is a most useful servant for the glib and shallow soul who might like to impress with the fancy of his sober incredulity. Anyone –...

In the opinion of Germaine Greer, the better kind of art is that which one cannot collect. Therefore, since one can collect the works of, s...

We often shy away from understanding and talking about the adverse and harmful consequences of our actions; for those actions seem so much t...

Ms Soumaya Ghannoushi of The Guardian asks: Are liberal societies completely immune to totalitarianism and despotism? Could the boundaries ...

The poser who fancies himself a man of the Enlightenment, taking all matters through reason rather than authority, reveals his imposture whe...

Upon a slowing pace of change towards his ideals, the radical is wont to complain unduly of a regression therefrom, a deceit by which he hop...

“It is sufficient for a man’s justification if he has so lived that he deserves forgiveness for his faults on account of his virtues.” ........

Ink-slinger and paid narcissist Johann Hari tells us that, after he had begun taking Seroxat — an anti-depressant which he has been taking e...

When a fool cannot find the reason for something, he might say it lacks a rational basis, when in fact it is he who lacks the means to find ...

There are some people who are so political that they might feel that even paradise would be incomplete without a constitution.