The Joy of Curmudgeonry

“The fact that Sir Simon Jenkins hates the great Russian novelist [Dostoevsky] is also a major reason for thinking that he [the great Russia...

The green-eyed epigone has long known to the boon of his encouragement an easy way to imitate the reputed example of his masters: he darkens...

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...

Neither the rabid ideologue in a description nor the capuchin monkey in a mirror believes it catches a glimpse of itself. Whilst the monkey ...

One very important component of an ideology’s defence-mechanism is the claim that all thinking stems from an ideology of some sort, and thus...

Injustice is always keenly felt, especially when feigned.

The easiest and most common way of setting oneself apart from commonality is to set oneself apart from commonsense.

One can always find some points of agreement with one’s enemies. I, for instance, agree with liberals in believing that liberalism is really...

Real people – the vulgar; Real world – where the vulgar live; Real women – fat ones.

In speaking of the part played by anatomically modern humans in the demise of the Neanderthals, Adam Rutherford is careful not to place mo...

“ There’s . . . that strange phenomenon where every generation thinks that the next one’s standards are fatally declining.” [1] He who talks...

“As much as legislators and founders of states ought to be honoured and respected among men, as much ought the founders of sects and faction...

The progressive has acquired the propensity to see as extreme the mildest deviations from his extremism. His ideological inheritance has com...

It might not have occurred to the aristocrats of former days to think that their liberalism would lead to a day such as ours when people not...

The whole of society is on the loose again. It left its tracks in a newspaper this morning: If we are to tackle obesity properly, the whole ...

“ Present folly seeks the unity of nations and not the creation of a single man from the entire species, so be it; but in acquiring general ...