The Art of Tetman Callis

“No well ordered society can leave to the individuals an absolute right to make final decisions, unassailable by the State, as to everything they will or will not do.” – Justice Hugo Lafayette Black and Justice William Orville Douglas, West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) Share this… Facebook Pinterest […]

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“Free public education, if faithful to the ideal of secular instruction and political neutrality, will not be partisan or enemy of any class, creed, party, or faction.” – Chief Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson, West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“What do you want to see come into the world? How can you bring it into the world today, even just a little bit?” — Bud Smith, “Four Memories of Giancarlo DiTrapano” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Life doesn’t go on. It goes nowhere except away. Death goes on. Going on is what death does for a living. The secret to surviving in the universe is to be dead.” – Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Writers can be only so conscientious about truth before becoming paralyzed.” – Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Writing is hard, or everyone would do it.” – Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Judgment is to be made of actions according to the times in which they were performed. The conduct of a wise politician is ever suited to the present posture of affairs; often by foregoing a part he saves the whole, and by yielding in a small matter secures a greater.” – “Comparison of Poplicola with […]

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“The remission of debts was peculiar to Solon; it was his great means for confirming the citizens’ liberty; for a mere law to give all men equal rights is but useless, if the poor must sacrifice those rights to their debts, and, in the very seats and sanctuaries of equality, the courts of justice, the […]

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“A people always minds its rulers bestWhen it is neither humored nor oppressed.”– “Comparison of Poplicola with Solon,” Plutarch’s Lives (trans. A. H. Clough) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“The trading temper, independent and insubordinate, is absolutely opposed to the military spirit.” – Admiral comte Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, bailli de Suffren, Letter to Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix de Castries, marquis de Castries, baron des États de Languedoc, comte de Charlus, baron de Castelnau et de Montjouvent, seigneur de […]

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“Perhaps no other culture has valued the contrived happy ending as much as ours.” – Stephen Beachy, “Who Is the Real JT LeRoy?” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“It is not the office of art to spotlight alternatives, but to resist by its form alone the course of the world, which permanently puts a pistol to men’s heads.” – Theodor W. Adorno, “Commitment” (trans. Francis McDonagh) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“Never say never, because it’s never never.” – Yoko Ono, “Bad Dancer” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“The middle of a great and unsuccessful war is no time to begin preparations. ‘Better late than never’ is not so safe a proverb as ‘In time of peace prepare for war.’ “ – Captain A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“The average man is not a coward; but neither is he endowed by nature only with the rare faculty of seizing intuitively the proper course at a critical moment. He gains it, some more, some less, by experience or by reflection.” – Captain A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 Share […]

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“Most of the authors of the New Testament did not write particularly well, even by the forgiving standards of the koiné—that is, ‘common’—Greek in which they worked. The unknown author of the Letter to the Hebrews commanded a fairly distinguished and erudite style, and was obviously an accomplished native speaker of the tongue; and Luke, […]

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“If there is no consciousness but only a dreamless sleep, death must be a marvelous gain. I suppose that if anyone were told to pick out the night on which he slept so soundly as not even to dream, and then to compare it with all the other nights and days of his life, and […]

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“The difficulty is not so much to escape death; the real difficulty is to escape from doing wrong, which is far more fleet of foot.” – Plato, Socrates’ Defense (Apology) (trans. Hugh Tredennick) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“I do not think that it is right for a man to appeal to the jury or to get himself acquitted by doing so; he ought to inform them of the facts and convince them by argument. The jury does not sit to dispense justice as a favor, but to decide where justice lies, and […]

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“The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.” – Plato, Socrates’ Defense (Apology) (trans. Hugh Tredennick) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action—that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one.” […]

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“Thou that dost inhabit in my breast, leave not the mansion so long tenantless, lest, growing ruinous, the building fall, and leave no memory of what it was! Repair me with thy presence.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“War, with its many acknowledged sufferings, is above all harmful when it cuts a nation off from others and throws it back upon itself. There may indeed be periods when such rude shocks have a bracing effect, but they are exceptional, and of short duration, and they do not invalidate the general statement.” – Captain […]

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“Neither individual nations nor men can thrive when severed from natural intercourse with their kind; whatever the native vigor of constitution, it requires healthful surroundings, and freedom to draw to itself from near and from far all that is conducive to its growth and strength and general welfare. Not only must the internal organism work […]

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“There really is no reason / for much of anything humans do / once you get past hunting and fishing, / farming and shelter building. / Oh, sure, art makes sense too / if you look at the cave drawings. / Everything else is an agreed-upon / arrangement we promise / not to make fun […]

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“Men may be discontented at the lack of political privilege; they will be yet more uneasy if they come to lack bread.” – Captain A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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“In these three things—production, with the necessity of exchanging products, shipping, whereby the exchange is carried on, and colonies, which facilitate and enlarge the operations of shipping and tend to protect it by multiplying points of safety—is to be found the key to much of the history, as well as of the policy, of nations […]

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“I was committed for two weeks to a mental health hospital for depression and suicidal behavior. Two weeks doesn’t sound long, but let me assure you that time is, in fact, relative. Imagine, if you will, being driven off in the middle of the night, poked and prodded by a doctor, having everything about you […]

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“It is the policy of the circuit to avoid issuing unnecessary opinions.” — Circuit Rule 32.1(a), Circuit Rules of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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