Recently in SmartRemarks Category

I'm enjoying the latest book by Jonah Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism."  An excerpt:

"The exaltation of passion over reason, action over deliberation, is a naturally youthful impulse.  Treating young people as equals, 'privileging' their opinions precisely because they lack experience and knowledge, is an inherently fascist tendency, because at it's heart lies the urge to throw off 'old ways' and 'old dogmas' in favor of what the Nazis called the 'idealism of the deed.'  Youth politics--like populism generally--is the politics of the tantrum and the hissy fit."

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.

Francoise Rene Auguste Chateaubriand

Guerir quelquefois, soulager souvent, consoler toujours. [to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always]

French folk saying, inscribed on statue of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau at Saranac Lake, New York

Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

"One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine."

Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919), Aphorisms from his Bedside Teachings (1961) p. 105

"Orthodox medicine has not found an answer to your complaint. However, luckily for you, I happen to be a quack."

from a Richter cartoon caption

"But what physician has not had patients who don't make any sense at all? To tell the truth, they're our stock-in-trade. We talk and write about the ones we can make sense of."

Walker Percy

"The public blames the medical profession for giving too many tranquilizers and antidepressants. But what would you do? Doctors like to see healing as the result of their work. Yet today we often must be content with far less. There are so many things wrong with people's lives that even our best is only a stopgap."

Richard A. Swenson, MD

All Americans today are thinking . . . of the families of these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief. You're not alone. Our entire nation grieves with you. And those you loved will always have the respect and gratitude of this country. . . .

In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.

--George W. Bush

"Just because a million Frenchmen believe a foolish thing doesn't mean a thing isn't foolish"

"According to the news reports, al Qaeda captured one of our soldiers in the latest fighting and promptly executed him. We're being called barbaric while letting our well-fed and well-tended prisoners wear turbans and chat with government provided clerics." [National Review]