My Commonplace Blog
A digital form of the sadly lost fashion for copying out memorable passages from texts. I kept losing my actual book.
Friday, 15 May 2026
Yet again, this was a case of large scale hybrid warfare: and Napoleon was not particularly good at it
Thursday, 14 May 2026
That was the worst of these Americans! Always getting divorced and causing unpleasantness
She choked. His lordship, a young man with a shrinking horror of the deeper emotions, whether exhibited in woman or man, writhed silently. That was the worst of these Americans! Always getting divorced and causing unpleasantness. How was a fellow to know?
P. G. Wodehouse, The little nugget (1913), 10
Wednesday, 13 May 2026
Greece is part of Western civilization, for the very simple reason that over the last two hundred years Greeks have determined that it should be.
Tuesday, 12 May 2026
The timing, manner and mood of a private assault on a new town are a serious matter.
The timing, manner and mood of a private assault on a new town are a serious matter. If the town should be one of the world's wonders, it is crucial. To arrive at Constantinople by air, for instance, and reach the city by the airport bus is to be swallowed b the saddest and most squalid of Balkan slums. It must be attacked from the sea and the haggish but indestructible splendour, crckling with all the atmospherics of its long history, allowed to loo slowly across the shining Propontis.
P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 301
Monday, 11 May 2026
The Christian Church was the last great creative achievement of classical Greek culture
The evolution of Christianity into a logical system which could weather the shocks of millennia, was a Greek thing. The Christian Church was the last great creative achievement of classical Greek culture.
P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 214
Sunday, 10 May 2026
Why, Kyriakos Mavromichalis of course, his brother. Who else?
The conversation drifted inevitably to politics. Like most of the Maniots, he was a firm royalist. I pointed to the poster of M. Petro Mavromichalis and asked if he had voted for him.
'Yes,' he said, 'but I think we should change our deputy....'
...
I asked him who he would prefer to represent the constituency: it was sad to contemplate this uprooting of traditional allegiances. He looked surprised. 'Who? Why, Kyriakos Mavromichalis of course, his brother. Who else?'
P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 161
Saturday, 9 May 2026
A Vlach is a plain-dweller
P.L. Fermor, Mani (1958), 70