Dear S,
Solomon says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Montaigne, expanding on the idea, says, in his essay On Names,
It is said that the church of Notre-Dame-la-Grande at Poitiers had the following origin. A dissolute young man who lived on that spot brought a prostitute to his house. As soon as she arrived, he asked her name. When she answered that it was Mary, he was struck so powerfully by religious awe and reverence for that sacred name of the Virgin Mother of our Savior that he not only sent the woman away at once but reformed the whole remainder of his life. In memory of this miracle, a chapel dedicated to Our Lady was built where the young man’s house had stood, and afterward the church we see there today.
He continues,
That devout correction entered directly into the soul through the voice and the ear. Another of the same kind entered through the bodily senses. Pythagoras was once among a group of young men who, heated by a feast, were conspiring to go and violate a respectable household. He ordered the musician to change her tune; and by means of solemn, grave, spondaic music, he gently enchanted their passion and lulled it to sleep.
So I’m leaving these here, and who knows? They probably won't stop a rapist, but maybe they’ll turn a brothel into a cathedral.
Yours,
-J
August 25th, 2026
Sharing dreams.
We talk more about the temptation to do evil than the temptation to do good. Probably because the temptation to do evil makes us look good, and the temptation to do good makes us look bad.
With one we look powerful but restrained; with the other we look derelict and weak.
Uncharitable?
The question of whether to help the poor is always secondary. The first question is, "are they poor because they're shitty? Or are they shitty because they’re poor?”
One definition of magnanimity.
Those who apologize because they need to and those who apologize because they want to.
The things we do for money.
“Ladies and gentlemen” was flattery at its most shameless: the pretense that the peasants in front of you were nobility and landholders.
Love and marriage.
What we need in a good marriage is someone to balance us out — in certain regards an opposite. This means the impulsive needs the planner, the dynamic needs an anchor, and the leader needs a follower.
What we want in a romance on the other hand is oftentimes what’s similar. We fall hardest for those who exhibit what we love most about ourselves.
Jerks and dupes.
The conflict between racists and anti-racists revolves around one thing: the fact that nature has never turned out two of the same people, and our whole social existence involves categorizing people and their behaviors.
Nature works in recognizable patterns — never in duplicates. The racists recognize the patterns. The anti-racists point out the inconsistencies. Both pick sides and pretend to be comfortable, but it gnaws on them both; and neither party, unless totally stupid, feels his position is unassailable. The man we call “racist” worries that by judging obvious trends he’s hurting a good man of another race. The anti-racist hides facts and worries he’ll be known as either a dupe or a liar.
Another reason racial controversies are so hot: they not only involve power, justice, and tribal psychology. They involve people defending positions they know are riddled with holes — and that their own side, at some point or another, could look either foolish or cruel.
Charisma matters.
Regarding Thomas Sowell and F.A. Hayek:
The public needs to know what they said. But they’re such bad writers that you can’t stick around long enough to hear them say all of it.
Like Solomon's saying, a man who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys, to bore somebody with a good thing is tantamount to supporting a bad thing.
Cocksure.
Confidence has two parents: ignorance and experience.
To be sure of yourself means you never asked or you no longer have to. Between these two fringes lies uncertainty.
The meaning of taste.
All culture is prejudice. The first step to being cultured was the belief that some other way of doing something was inferior.
Equality ad infinitum.
“All men are created equal” is the polar opposite gist of “governments are instituted among men.” The first pretends to be a reason for government; the real reason for government immediately ruins it.
Our natural inequality creates injustice. And the government exists not only to upend this injustice, but to separate our people from the others — who result in different kinds of society and government, which we fear and often hate.
Aside from this, once someone takes the first saying seriously, he wonders, what about the man on the other side of the border? A question which ruins the very basis of rights. What each country makes for itself is exclusive — and each defends it with violence against everyone who remains “other.”
My personal goal.
Never tell someone to calm down. Use your manner and words to calm them down.
Never tell someone beneath you to smile. Instead be the reason they feel like smiling.
Never tell anyone to believe. Instead, give them something to believe in.
Fun and pain.
To really enjoy food, starve yourself.
To really enjoy sleep, work yourself to the bone.
To really enjoy water, let yourself be thirsty.
To really enjoy women, rarely touch one — and in the modern age of wankery, try to avoid touching yourself.
Those who inundate themselves with pleasure will never feel it. If you want to get high, lay low. If you want to have fun, let yourself feel bad. Longing, craving, and hurting are the gateways through which God delivers joy — the coinage paid for having fun.
When you get sick, rejoice: you are about to experience the ecstasy of feeling well. The best views come after the longest climbs.
Saintly or selfish.
The difference between the martyr and the suicide is smaller than we think. In the end neither of them were willing to live if they couldn’t have something they want. The difference between them is that one of them benefits us by their suicide and the other one hurts.
We call the “suicide” selfish because he thought it was too painful to live. But who is more selfish than the person who celebrates martyrs?