Word on the Street

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. -Laurens van der Post, explorer and writer (1906-1996)

That quotation--as usual, filched from the wonderful newsletter A Word a Day, seems particularly fitting these days, both politically and religiously speaking.

Here are a few others that caught my eye:

Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror. -Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928)

To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. -Joseph Conrad, novelist (1857-1924)

As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. -Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519)

Friendship, like credit, is highest where it is not used. -Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915)

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy. -Antoine de Rivarol, epigrammatist (1753-1801)

Love involves a peculiar, unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding. -Diane Arbus, photographer (1923-1971)

I had a lover's quarrel with the world. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)