“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.”
Sherman Revisited
Epilogue: 2025 Book Discussion
Michael and David aim to read William Manchester's Churchill series, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Plutarch's Lives. Cal plans to revisit The Odyssey to prepare for the new movie, along with tackling War and Peace and Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Caius is a man, men are mortal, and therefore Caius is a mortal.
Liberté, Liberté Chérie
"You must know him as the North River captain and know that it is only the exercise of his own judgment which was wanting to perfect his character."
Rewriting Reality: Lessons from Michael Pollan’s Psychedelic Journey
“My ego was suspended somewhere in space, and I saw my body lying dead on the sofa.”
Eternity Is Nearer Every Day
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
Honor and the Haunting: What Valiant Ambition Reveals About Us
"Let me die in this old uniform in which I fought my battles. May God forgive me for ever having put on another."
100th, From the Underground
“To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Maryland, My Maryland
Thy beaming sword shall never rust,Maryland!Remember Carroll's sacred trust,Remember Howard's warlike thrust,-And all thy slumberers with the just,Maryland! My Maryland! Michael and David dive into Patrick K. O'Donnell's Washington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution. They trace the remarkable journey of the Maryland regulars—from the desperate... Continue Reading →
Ode to Lincoln
“The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is moonlight by the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last thousands of years. Washington was a typical American, Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country-bigger than all the Presidents put together”
Brains and Brawn 