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Essays, aphorisms, quotes and poems


The Absurdity of Injustice

"the optimist sees injustice as something discordant and unexpected, and it stings him into action. The pessimist can be enraged at wrong; but only the optimist can be surprised at it"

Life is a Gift

A Christmas poem by Joseph Brodsky

Why We Create Jargon

Language lets us feel we have connected. Yet we are not always sure and so we invent jargons, idiolects, little groups in which we can feel assured of membership. Yet even this reassurance can feel hollow.

Bureaucracy and Evil

Evil can grow in many places - but the bureau - the office where no one rules - is particularly prone to create unfeeling harms.

You Can't Overcome Ethics

We must never lose a sense of our own individual moral responsibility - if we do we stop being human.

The Paradoxical Commandments

Kent M. Keith & The Roches offer some wise advice on setting sail in this troublesome and paradoxical world.

We are Contradictions

A quote from Simone Weil

Two Kinds of Collaboration

We can understand why some had to collaborate with the totalitarian regime. But why did so many others join in who had nothing to fear?