Fewtril #220

Fair consideration of impolitic or outmoded views requires an effort that can be more profitably spent in seeking favour with the times, whereby it is more efficient simply to hate them.

Fewtril #153

Much of the trouble with liberty comes from the difficulty that people have in appreciating that the right to act like a rotter does not mean one ought to act like one.

Fewtril #155

“X has no place in a democracy” — the instances of x grow by the day.

Fewtril #181

Perhaps there is also a genetic predisposition to seek the excuses for one’s behaviour in genetic predisposition.

Fewtril no.280

The more primitive, the more real — this is the principle of a reductionistic metaphysics which informs everything from art to science. Perhaps one day we shall become too real to express it.

Fewtril #175

Insofar as true nobility of purpose is lacking, we ought to be duly thankful even for mean-spiritedness and strife; for much of the good done in the world is done solely for the sake of making one’s enemies look bad.

Fewtril no.277

It is no easy task to become virtuous, which is why in our age it is regarded as a vicious burden.

Fewtril #207

Fawney-scholars and frivolous mediocrities, in trivial and low-regarded fields of study, take seriously the work of promoting geniuses from amongst themselves.

Fewtril no.235

With all the hopeful remedies, liberal policies, humanistic prescriptions, and so on, that I hear mentioned everyday, I ask myself whether they are really directed at the same species I see everyday.

Fewtril no.259

Nothing so wonderful as Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog could be painted today in contemporary depiction without straying into the bounds of the unusual. The wanderer would have to appear in bright synthetic clothing.

Fewtril #167

Many would find it easier to live a life of abstinence than of moderation; happily for such persons, there is an even easier extreme: a life of indulgence.

Fewtril #206

Be under no illusion: should a terrible and morbid regime be instituted tomorrow, all kinds of shabbiness will step out from the shadows of moral uprightness: excited eyes will fix themselves on the aesthetics of destruction; and pallid minds will feel refreshed in brutal expression, revived and ardent after long oppression.

Fewtril no.228

I’ll never fit in; I have trouble faking outrage.

Fewtril #194

Everyone claims to live by the principle that we should not harm the innocent, which is perhaps why we have so many theories that find us all guilty.

Fewtril #179

Rather than simply shirk one’s duty, it appears much more decent to make a principle out of one’s disinclination to perform it.

Fewtril no.279

Logical positivism was more scorn than logical commitment. That might explain its lingering appeal despite its self-refutation.

Fewtril #141

Who wouldn’t be virtuous if it were effortless and ever profitable?

Fewtril #151

Falsity easily grows into absurdity; for, through a surfeit of pride, we make ever greater mistakes in order that we remain consistent with our first.

Fewtril no.232

Democracy vulgarises to so great an extent that it leaves the vast majority of people impressed with its achievements.

Fewtril #223

Art, we are told, must be accessible to all, as if it must serve the purpose and attain the status of a public convenience.