Tuesday, 29 May 2012

One seems to hear the bugles blowing for the Crusades

[']I rather wish sometimes, Connie,' said Lady Julia meditatively, 'that you were a little less of the grande dame. It's wonderful to watch you in action, I admit - one seems to hear the bugles blowing for the Crusades and the tramp of the mailed feet of a hundred steel-clad ancestors - but there's no getting away from it that you do put people's backs up a bit.'

P.G Wodehouse, Heavy Weather (1933), 240-241

Monday, 28 May 2012

A public-house for each individual inhabitant

The ideal towards which the City Fathers of all English county towns strive is to provide a public-house for each individual inhabitant; and those of Market Blandings had not been supine in this matter. From where Beach stood, he could see no fewer than six such establishments.

P.G. Wodehouse, Heavy Weather (1933), 153

Friday, 25 May 2012

The deceased was a Russian by birth, and therefore excitable

He did not attempt to disguise his own opinion, which was that the deceased had taken his own life. ... Various motives had been suggested, and the jury must bear in mind that the deceased was a Russian by birth, and therefore excitable, and liable to be overcome by feelings of melancholy and despair. He himself  had read a great deal of Russian literature and could assure the jury that suicide was of frequent occurrence among the members of that unhappy nation. We who enjoyed the blessing of being British might find that difficult to understand, but the jury could take it from him that it was so.

D.L. Sayers, Have his carcase (1932) 277

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Satan is real


Preacher, tell them that Satan is real too. You can hear him in songs that give praise to idols and sinful things of this world. You can see him in the destruction of homes torn apart. I know that Satan is real. For once I had a happy home; I was loved and respected by my family; I was looked upon as a leader in my community. And then Satan came into my life, I grew selfish and un-neighbourly. My friends turned against me. And finally my home was broken apart. My children took their path into a world of sin.

Yes, preacher, it’s sweet to know that God is real. And to know that in him all things are possible. And we know that heaven is a real place, where joy shall never end. But sinner friends, if you’re here today, Satan is real too, and hell is a real place. A place of everlasting punishment.

The Louvin Brothers, 'Satan is Real', Satan is Real (1959), 1.11 - 2.24

Thursday, 29 March 2012

Votaries initiated in the orgies of Dionysus ran about in goat-skins, mangling hounds in Bacchic frenzy

Accordingly during the whole period of his [Valens'] reign the altar fire was lit, libations and sacrifices were offered to idols, public feasts were celebrated in the forum, and votaries initiated in the orgies of Dionysus ran about in goat-skins, mangling hounds in Bacchic frenzy, and generally behaving in such a way as to show the iniquity of their master. When the right faithful Theodosius found all these evils he pulled them up by the roots, and consigned them to oblivion.

Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Ecclesiastical History V.21.4-5, tr. NPNF

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

If Keith Richards is running your intervention, you're in trouble

Keith sincerely feared Gram [Parsons] was doing an unhealthy amount of heroin. It hardly needs saying that if Keith Richards is running your intervention, you're in trouble

D.N. Meyer, Twenty thousand roads: the ballad of Gram Parsons (2007), 351

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

As objective as a panel of butchers telling us we should eat more meat

Everyone wants to live what they would see as the good life. Philosophers have had plenty to say about what this comprises, but their answers have tended to reveal an unsurprising bias. As people who value thought and contemplation, they have tended to come up with the idea that the good life is one of thought and contemplation. For some reason this answer has been granted a great deal of respect, even though it looks as objective as a panel of butchers telling us we should eat more meat.

J. Baggini, Welcome to Everytown (2007), 96-97