I preach that odd defiant melancholy that sees the dreadful loneliness of the human soul and the pitiful disaster of human life as ever redeemable and redeemed by compassion, friendship and love.
John DerbyshireNonmathematical people sometimes ask me, โYou know math, huh? Tell me something Iโve always wondered, What is infinity divided by infinity?โ I can only reply, โThe words you just uttered do not make sense. That was not a mathematical sentence. You spoke of โinfinityโ as if it were a number. Itโs not. You may as well ask, 'What is truth divided by beauty?โ I have no clue. I only know how to divide numbers. โInfinity,โ โtruth,โ โbeautyโโthose are not numbers.
John DerbyshireWhat does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils. At this point, I wouldn't let the fool park his car in my driveway. Bruce Bartlett was right, every damn word.
John DerbyshireIn matters editorial, I am a believer in totalitarian despotism. Most writers are lazy, difficult, selfish, thoughtless, and unreliable.
John DerbyshireYou are inhuman brutes determined to rob us of our spiritual consolations and sweep away the moral foundations of our civilization, and on the other: You are obscurantist ignoramuses who'd like to shut down progress and drag us all back to the 16th century, with kings and priests telling us what to think.
John DerbyshireThe job of conservatives is to keep the Republican Party driving on the right-hand side of the road. There are many ways we do this. We argue, we publish, we lobby, we campaign for conservative candidates. Another thing we do is, when the GOP goes off the rails on really key issues - size of government, the National Question, Wilsonian adventures - we stay home on election day.
John Derbyshire