George Will
George Will
George Frederick Willis an American newspaper columnist and political commentator. He is a Pulitzer Prize–winner known for his conservative commentary on politics. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America," in a league with Walter Lippmann...
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth4 May 1941
wise taken passion
Happiness is impossible, and even inconceivable, to a mind without scope and without pause, a mind driven by craving, pleasure, or fear. To be happy, you must be reasonable, or you must be tamed. You must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world and what things in it can really serve you. To be happy, you must be wise.
lying expression choices
In this world we must either institute conventional forms of expression or else pretend that we have nothing to express; the choice lies between a mask and a figleaf.
stupidity mature dunces
There is no dunce like a mature dunce.
skepticism intellect chastity
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect.
world amusement spirit
The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine.... If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit.
retirement philosophy cities
Philosophy is a more intense sort of experience than common life is, just as pure and subtle music, heard in retirement, is something keener and more intense than the howling of storms or the rumble of cities.
intuition reason instinct
Well-bred instinct meets reason halfway
order remember sometimes
Sometimes we have to change the truth in order to remember it.
winter civilization long
Civilization is perhaps approaching one of those long winters that overtake it from time to time. Romantic Christendom - picturesque, passionate, unhappy episode - may be coming to an end. Such a catastrophe would be no reason for despair.
war politics soil
To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love.
men comforting opinion
Most men's conscience, habits, and opinions are borrowed from convention and gather continually comforting assurances from the same social consensus that originally suggested them.
mean recognition nasty
Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.
grind my-thoughts
I have no axe to grind; only my thoughts to burnish.
spiritual lying joy
Spirituality lies in regarding existence merely as a vehicle for contemplation, and contemplation merely a vehicle for joy.